THE CLERGY AND GAMBLING

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CLERGY AND GAMBLING

A DENUNCIATORY SYNOD.

BISHOP OF GIBRALTAR AND MONTE

CARLO.

The Canterbury Diocesan Conference, with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair, assembled at Lambeth Palace, on July 12, to discuss the question of gambling and betting. ' Archdeacon Smith introduced the subject. The evils of gambling and betting were many, he —First, the practice was contrary to the general idea of duty towards oneself, and it was a risk of property, of character, and sometimes of family, life, and happiness, while it gave rise to a morbid desire for unearned gain. It took the heart out of plodding labour, and led to extravagance ; and as things were constituted in England, gambling and betting brought people into association with not the best! class of mankind. It was for that conference to endeavour to obtain legislation to check those increasing evils. WILL LEGISLATION CHECK THE EVIL ? Lord Hardinge, who next spoke, however, expressed a doubt as to whether legislation could check the evil. Ho pointed out that the other day, when the police 'made a raid on a gambling hell, all the people arrested got off, except the man who kept the place. He could not say, he added, that there was less gambling amongst the upper classes ; round games were played in most country houses, and otten for high stakes. He himself once played whist with an eminent bishop, who did not think it wrong, and he (the spaaker) did not think it wrong, because he was playing with a bishop. (Laughter.) There was no doubt, however, that betting was very prevalent. The recent turf scandals had revealed painful circumstances. People said the turf would be purified. He did nob believe anything: of the sort. The turf would be nearly as bad as ever, and malpractices would still go on. No doubt the members of the Jockey Club were all honourable men, but they were powerless to check these malpractices. What were the remedies'! The Legislature would never do much. The influence of the pulpit should be used to expose these vices, and parents should set a good example to their chiidren ; and when the clergy preached against it they must not mince i matters, but call a spade a spade. (Cheers.) Gambling was dishonest, and the man who stood to lose money which he knew he could not pay, was sis dishonest as the man who stole a leg of mutton from a butcher's shop. " PANDERING TO HUMAN VICE AND FOLLY." The Bishop of Gibraltar said that the tyranny of gambling was as great as the tyranny of drink. He himself had refused to allow an English church to be built at Monte Carlo, as a protest against this gigantic system of pandering to human vice and folly. (Cheers.) Archdeacon Smith moved, " That this conference recognises the terrible and apparently growing evils of betting and {rambling, and its members pledge themselves by precept and example to discountenance this practice, and to instil, especially in the young, those Christian principles which are the most powerful antidotes of this national evil." Earl Stanhope, in seconding the resolution, expressed a belief that the evil of gaming was growing more with the lower than the upper classes. There was hardly a society club in London in which high play was now allowed ; but, unfortunately, it could not be denied that gambling hells did exist. The Archbishop said that there was no doubt that the practice of gambling was creeping like a heath fire. Legislation could not go far enough, and nothing could be constituted for the Church's teaching of duty. The resolution was then agreed to.