SWEEPSTAKES ON HYMNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17662, 24 December 1920, Page 2 (Supplement)

SWEEPSTAKES ON HYMNS.

WELSH CHURCH MORALS. Betting by choir boys on hymn numbers is the latest development of the gambling mania. * - The authority for the assertion is Mr. Evan Loughor, of Mertbyr, who opened a discussion on the subject at a meeting of the .Welsh National Council of Public Morals at Merthyr. "The disease has crept into the churches," he said. "It is in the sanctuary." How many were aware that most Sunday nights there was a sweepstake taking place among tho boys as to the number of the first hymn announced? The young men who were now chased over tho coal tips were a few years ago the pride and hope of the churches in Merthyr. They met in gangs every Sunday on the canal bank and on the disused coal tips and played all sorts of gambling games, from' " pitch and tcss" to bridge. Sometimes these companies of young men, as a rule well clothed and prosperous-looking, were chased bv the police, but they guarded against "being caught unawares by a systeei of sentries keeping watch on the law officers. And -ie was sorry to say some, people in'the town assisted by putting signals ia the , fTAen. ihs