BOOKMAKERS' APPEAL DISMISSED.
VALIDITY OF A BOROUGH BY-LAW.
[BY TELEGRAPH. ASSOCIATION.]!
New Plymouth, Friday. The-judgment of Mr. Justice Cooper in the appeals by bookmakers against convictions in the S.M. Court for betting at the Christmas meeting was delivered to-day. The principal ground for appeal on law was as to the validity of the borough by-law to prohibit betting. -
The.validity of the by-law was questioned upon four grounds(a) that the Borough Council had no power to make it (b) that the by-law was contrary to the law and public policy of New Zealand (c) that ? itwas unreasonable ; and-(d) that it was uncertain and operated unequally. The reserve was, under the New Plymouth Recreation and Racecourse Reserve Act, 1887, vested in the corporation of the Thorough of New Plymouth for the purposes set forth. The by-law, for a breach of which the ! appellant was convicted by the magistrate, was a by-law purporting to have been made by the corporation in pursuance of the powers and provisions contained in the Municipal Corporations Act, 1900, and the .amendments thereof. It enacts that "Any person who frequents or uses any public place for the purpose of bookmaking, betting, or wagering, or agreeing to bet, wager, or pay, receive or settle any bet or wager, or (being a betting man or bookmaker or layer of totalisator or other odds) transacts any business relating to such calling in any public place, shall be guilty of an offence."
Various cases were quoted, establishing that a local body might under its powers make by-laws for the good government <of a borough, and prohibit a. person from carrying on the calling of a bookmaker in a "public place."
In an exhaustive judgment, the Court held that the Borough Council had power by this by-law to prohibit the carrying on of the business of bookmaking at all times upon the reserve, and therefore during a race meeting. The appeal was dismissed, with £7 7s costs against appellants.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 6
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326BOOKMAKERS' APPEAL DISMISSED. New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 6
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