VAGRANTS AS BOOKMAKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14017, 24 March 1909, Page 6

VAGRANTS AS BOOKMAKERS.

"RIDING THE ACT TO DEATH." [BY TELEGKAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHBrSTCHTTRCH, Tuesday. ' Speaking of some of 'I the men who; are licensed as bookmakers by jockey clubs, a police officer said:— have merely to collect enough money pay the license fee and then they are at liberty to prey upon yie public. - They are. given a legal standing in the community. ■-; Formerly the police could deal' ? /|pth these, men as vagrants, and did* so. 'iNow they ■ cannot bo touched, because-they? Have a legal standing in the community. , They are not without ''lawful visible mfejft&'of' support. They are • licensed ■ bookmakers. •; *. A ; man3'who wants a license to trade" as ; a second-hand dealer has to pass", the ordeal of a strict police examination into his .;, character. There does not seem to be -any examination at all into: the character ;of the - applicant for a bookmaker's license. The only qualification required is ability to pay the license fee. 1 It looks as though some clubs wanted to ride the Act to death, and so disgust the public with the bookmakers that ;■'"•' the totalisator ; will be. allowed to have ; a : monopoly of the racing business.": , . , , Air. H. E. .Wanjriyri, secretary of ..the ': Canterbury Jockey Club, states that the ] police sometimes reported to the club that i a man. ■. was 'of ; bad character, but unless": he j could show .convictions against him " the j club could not refuse' him a license. "'':->" . ■■■■■■~■■.--:.■.,,. A ..,.■.?