THE SACRIFICED "BOOK".

NZ Truth, Issue 265, 23 July 1910, Page 1

THE SACRIFICED "BOOK".

Why Not Strike at the Root?

It ftj futile, ', hesitat to pal Gamin to be whenei Wne a any go

i seetoingly foolish, and cecbainly to hope that the Government will : before it once again attempts Sr and generally meddle with the Laws of New Zealand. It seems | the -case m this Dominion thati sr a band of bilious bigots corned'commence to rave and i\uit on i >cial question that the Govern-

meat;

„.6 ard6 ard those yells as an explosion <f honest public sentement and opjinioi i. Fo-rthwiCh *he -views of the Ptaitatf are enrbtodied m legislation that is gradually encroaching on the liberty of the L subject and the. tipj&Jhonored. rights and independence of the I Press.There ' mist be m New Zealand a day of reckon og. The public too long have docilely lubfmltted to the domineering dictation' of the (Puritan, and already we perceiv; the dawn of! that coming day •when parson-.pironipted politicians wSI Ibc puniehfd by the people, and the wowser forces "tompletely routed. New Zealand is just now having a surfeit of parsonical dpmWbioa, and it is at once a reflection, ci the prescience of our politicians tbat liey a*& unaWle "to perceive or tesl the fa cc of honest public opinion; but ntfstaks the rantings and raving of a crew if cbadtoland clerics as. being toe true of tne people. 'I'natit sbouM also -ti left to the clerics of the Noncorfoniist churches to point out to-poli-ticians ttie parliamentary paths they sbouldij parstie is the strongest possiijile ilidf cat on iof the present political apatiby. of fee people. History is not silent on ■* V;*ia£] &nge slumbrous natures of ' the • f«auiities which, when asKafeenei, have asserte i that they axe I*e m-asters, that politic! as are the servants, and that the icteric ii a self-«eefcing, peK-pinchmg opportoßit, who profits by the ignorance, the apittoy and the blind faith and superstitiei of the masses. History has yet to r ep|srt itself m New Zealand. After a Beatinidrtai "jag" comes the recovery. A sentini jntal .wave is passing over the Dominion just now. When the 'effects ©f"tihis a -e properly felt it ,will Wp a case fit "ease caßem." • '

St i^ donibtful whether m New Zea-< feed's annals it ever passed thfougbJKSuch a simoom of sickening sentiment as it has experienced m the last thcee months. Simultaneously, from one end of the country to the other the cries leave- been raised { . fDown with the bookmaker/!)" '^Aboiiib. the totalisatoT I" and gambling has been denounced generally. These cries Ijave been prompted by the noisy Nonconformist parsons. A small section of the! community is represented! by these parsons, yet sufficiently loud have beefn tbeir veils that the Government has concluded (and, incidentally, been deluded into the bo«e*) that the people were crying , for rejorm. The result is ' that the Prime . Jffinisiter pledged Mmself to pass legislation which can only tinker with an evilf and gambling undoubtedly is an evil, which has, as past experience has proved,Vbeen only intensified by the ridioalous Attempts so far made to grapple with or control it. It remains to be seen to whet length the present Government wHI go/in order to still, if not temporarily iilence, the Nonconformist tongue. One tWg is certain. The bookmaker . must i;o. The fate of the totetKsator bangs ; n 'the balance. Yiet, will gambling be sup iressed ? Can any Act o* Parliamen render it impossible for any man profiting, as a layer of odds, from the human tendency to gamble? Of course it canip't. Lop off tlte branches of a te.ee *id they will sprout m. other directions; ; 'If horse-race gambling is to be suppre: jed, the axe must be aimed at the JPflts. • 'Entirely abolish horse-racing as ■■gCi..'. Make it a crime to pubUclj flPj^ti} speed and endurance of thordvtgabn Ss, and the continuous cry of "Oifc with the book," or "Down with the tot }■' will he heard no more. There is the onl; ; ' solution of the problem. It can be affiri ied that horse-racing or any sport, is inse; arable from the spirit of gam-

bhng. Jfc is yellow and while metal that is ever ithe spur to success m. every de partmeijt of life. While money is money jt will.ie ever staked to support man's opinion on anything, whether it be the result f a horse-race or, the result of an elee ton. As King Canute could not otem tie rising, tkle, sb also it is impossible for poli-tsiciams or parsons to alter tl 3 coarse of human nature. The bookma fer's calling may ' be declared illegal, tie totolSsator may be abolished. but ma i and money still survive. Where

! men. and money exist, so .long, therefore, | will men stake money,, so long will mcD I lay odds, even if the penalty ibe death. « * : -V But why is the bookmaker to be abolished ■?'■ Simpily. because* the ravening, wolves of wowseridom decree it. Crime has been committed. It is attributable to the bookmaker, or to the existence of the tote. 1 If crime is due m some circumstances to gambling, it ought to follow that gambling should be suppressed ; but who can compound the political pill that will act as a wholesale purge ? Greater by; far is the amount of crime due to drink. We aim to control or. suppress the drink traffic. iWith what success ? We attempt ttie violation of nature arid we are repulsed. Greater . than all is .the amount of crime that is traceable to degenerationHmoral and physical decay. The only hope of suppressing-, crime m that direetjLon. is to rid .the world of the degenerate, the unQt, the moral leper. The proposition is inhuman. Science can offer no other. The only argjuinent advanced for the suppression of the- bookmaker is that he is': a. source of tampttation totbje- young and the weak. .Because a fcumtoer of young men have gone wrong, and said their masters' cash went : into .the odds-layers' bags, the odd^-layer must " be declared illegal.^ We have laws against drinto— we still have drunkards. ' We have laws against thbfb— we still have thieves. It is a crime to murder— we still.bawmHrderera. iLdgtelate' the bookmaker out of legal existence, and 'he will continue to exist illegally. He will remain a source of temptation to the young, the weak, and the foolish. If the greater volume of gambling is connected with, horseracing, surely, m considering the necessity of mininrisiiigl that volume of gambling, horse-racing, not bookmakers or totalisaftors* should be- 1 the .first consideration. We-'have m New ZJealand tried horse-racing with ~the totalisator ; we • have tried horse-Bacißg. with the b'oofcmaker and the tot&ldaator ; now. .it is proposed tihat we -shall 'be v as y ; ou were:" 1 The book is to be legislated' against. That| is all His suppression is impossi- ' We. We have had all these • experiments, and if such "stieeialißts" as J. J. North are to be believed, all have been lamentabjle failures. Why not, therefore, try the expedient of abolishing) racecourses and racing horses & , " j

The bookmaker is to be offered up as a sacrifice to the wowser, m order that the revenue-yielding "tote" shall be saved. That is where the anti-gambler is side-tracked, and he knows it. If the issue is to be left to . the electors whether the "tote" shall continue m New Zealand, it should also be left to the elector to say whether the reputable bookmaker shall set up m opposition to the "tote." Let either stand or fall together. Racing , Clubs long enjoyed a monopoly of race-course gambling, and it was, we still maintain, a wise provision which legalised the bookmaker, and sought to confine his operations to the race-coarse. The intention of the Gaming Act of 19(W. was honest. That honest intention was defeated by the totalisator-controlling-racing clubs m issuiiig licenses to thieve to every criminal that could produce a sufficient sum of money to pay the license fee. It was 'the defeat of the legislature's jntention that paved the way for those abuses against which, m the circumstances, so many complaints were justly levelled. It is racing clubs that alone are responsible for the present parsjonical outcry. Parliament empowered the bookmaker to operate on race-courses. Racing cluhs empowered rogues to thieve from the public, m order that the public should be forced to patronise only the totalisator. Therefore, reputable and solvent bookmakers suffered for the sius of their rascally brethren. If the bookmaker goes and the totalisator remains, we revert to that deplorable state of affairs which existed before the passing of the 1007 Act. The safest course, "Truth" thinks, that Sir Joseph Ward could adopt is to allow the electors of New Zealand to decide by their Yes or No, whether the "tote" or the book should remain or be abolished.