GAMBLING IN SCOTLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9560, 11 July 1894, Page 4

GAMBLING IN SCOTLAND.

The General Assembly of ; the Church of Scotland. had before it -at' its / late meeting the subject of; gambling, i in which we ; are so deeply * interested at present. . The evil certainly does not seem to : have+there attained a high pitch.., At last Assembly, it was agreed that > schedules should be sent out to' parishes to obtain information on the subject. It is found now that returns have been sent in by 1179 parishes ; of these 797 reported that the practice did not exist in them, so that there is still a portion of Scotland which is comparatively holy ground; 28 reported that the persons asked had not the means of knowing, so that they at all events had nothing to do with the accursed . thing; 33 "not so far as known ;" while 321 reported that gambling prevailed more or less larorely. Sixty-four of the schedules declared that football matches and other athletic contests had a very close connexion with the spreading of the evil. Fiftynine declared that the prominence given ■to''sporting events in newspapers, and especially in the evening newspapers, did much to foster and extend the gambling spirit. Forty-seven pointed to the encouragement given to gambling by the sanction of lotteries and raffling at bazaars for Church purposes. Apparently the Church- is the principal gambling establishment. It is useless for us to dream of attaining this com- j paratively high level. We can only do ' a little white-washing by limiting to some extent the licences to use the totalisator.