THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL AT MILTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12419, 31 July 1902, Page 6

THE PROPOSED TOWN HALL AT MILTON.

TO THE EDITOR. v Sir,;— Will yon kindly allow me space to thtnk "llatepayor" for his very sensible loiter which appeared in your issue of Friday hist, and to make a few remarks on the subject. • At the meeting held in Milton it was stated by the chairman that a syndicate of gentleman was prepared to guarantee the borough against' any expense. The terms of the bond liavo since been published, and they are something very different from that, as the guarantee covers only the interest, 3120. ' . _ ■ _ • The following is the annual expense of the loan which the borough will liavo to at 4- per ocnt., £120; Sinking Fund at, say, 3i per cent., £160; insurance, £20; caretaker, say, £20; lighting and firing, say, £10; repairs, say, £20;— total,. £350.- This does not take into consideration various charges such as commission, legal expenses, etc. I trust that the ratepayers will show their common Eohse by voting against 'mipli nn mmeoessarv and umvnrrnrifrvl nuf.lnv

I am, etc., Miltony July 29. Ratepayer No'. '2.

. UNIVERSITY FINANCE. 'TO THE EDITOR Sin,—l am sorry-to sco tho Government tic(lgo seems ]ikcly to prove a success. They have'tried this game of bluff .on this community before, and have succeeded, and will probably succeed again.. I expect to hear I>cfore long that our ne\v railway sta"tioh 13 to be a. wooden shed, but that "if the Dunedin public—already bo noted for its generous impulses and. free-handed liberal-ity-r-choose to subscribe pound lor pound they , shall 1)& provided with a handsome structure,, in ' every way worthy of what is doubtless the finest city in New Z«ilnntl. ,Tho object of this letter is, howover, merely to' ask if you can inform me how. much money, derived from the general taxation of the colony, has been handed over., to the Wellington University during the hist two year?, and how much the Wellington people have suhsprihiwl tn nseiaf: this laudable aim?-

-I am, etc., jJutiMui, July 29. Neiio.

DAIRY REGULATIONS. TO THE KDITOn.

Siii,—l am very pleased that Mr M'Cartney, secretary of. the Peninsula Branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, has made a. timely correction of the report of their meeting. Ia effect he stated that the' resolution I referred to in a letter appearing iii your issue of July 23 was not correctly reported. He went on to say: "What wa3 passed- at tho meeting was that in subsection >15 T of section 8 the clause ' immediately before milking' be struck out, and that-'the words ' two hours after milking' be inserted." This is very satisfactory, as it brings all'.the resolutions passed by t\ioir union into almost complete Ji&rmeny with those passed by all the other similar bodies. They are a valuable contribution so far as they go. I admit I thought there must- have been an error somewhere, so in this correction I recognise another proof that the dairy people are in complete accord on the necessity for considerable alterations in the present dairy regulations.—l am, etc.,

. ' D. M'Cubdt, Secretary Upper Peninsula Branch of New Zealand Farmers' Union. July 28. '

THR TOTALISA.TOR AND GAMBLING. "Whit proclamation, may? All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be ■ pluolt'd down. And what shall become of those in the city? They shall stand for seed; they had gone down too, but that aiwise burgher put in for them. . "Measure for Measure." TO THE EDITOR. . Sib,—l had purposed to allow this subjcct to drop for a time, but your article to-day once more brings it to mind that for very quiet's sake I must write' 1 my thoughts, Gambling, like the poor, will always be with, us. Because. that is so, should we condone it?. If so, should wo license it 1 that all may indulge in the vice? If not, should we make harsh;, laws against it in the endeavour to root it out. Worse vices have ibeeh-from the beginning, and to force them nway tlic most stringent, laws have.'been made, ; yet they are still with us, but'not to,that•extent that history proves them to have been. What, then, keeps such in the background? The spread of higher morality tlirough the power of Him whose teaching t'Xaltet'h a nation. So'it can only be with gambling,',. Strict laws against it will do no more'to prevent—especially such cruel laws advocated by Mr J. F. M. 1 Fraser—that a man should, prove himself innocent —than a: system of licensed gambling. • Here I migHt remark that the foundalion of our freedom is that a man is held to be innocent 'till ho is proved guilty, and that to hold a man guilty till ho is proved •Aino'cent comc.3 from a man who would be a persecutor rather than a prosecutor. Once establish such a principle and each and all would be i(t the mercy of anv malignant [officer. 1

Tl\o law should not pry too far into the doings of men. Supposing oven the presem 'law were strictlv enforced, how uncomfortable it might provo to many men. Let us take a case.' A party of ordinary men of ■tho world, thoroughly honest in their commercial 'life,/is travelling in the train. A| game of cards is suggested; penny poker goes on; the.guard knows it. yet wisely docs not see "it. So in many private house*, cards,are played anil money is exchanged. Io many of our boarding-houses a great pari; of Sunday may be spent by boarders in playing for greater or smaller , sums. And even in prohibition districts the billiard room may bo the home of gambling company. Would anyone, therefore, be so foolish as to enact a law to forbid the use of cards, or, on the other hand, nropose to license gaming houses? So in, like manner is it with betting.Many will continue to bet. but there is no excuse for making tho ovil legitimate, any more than forcing the, bookmaker into gaol. As you, Sir, to-day re.marked ■ that , horse racing was becoming a business, so nieu are engaged in betting as a profession, and from no criminal instinct in tho accented idea set forth in a criminal code. Argue with such men, and 0116 comes to the conclusion that they are wanting. On are many commercial men, in that higher l seiiso'of morality found in the minds of- thp.se who arc' governed by the highest spiritual teaching. The morality of •many of these, men is as liigh as that- of the .largo mass of ordinary mortals. You may 1 ' find among them kindly, sober moil, able to rule their homes with common sense and respectability, anil thoroughly honest au to their contracts with their fellows. Hav.ih laws may eausc such men to retroat, arid leave tlio work to the born criminal. How, then, would I cope with the evil? In .no case would I allow gambling to be legitimate. 'It gambling bo recognised as a vice, it.has In have* favoured treatment; and certainly in no case should it 1)6 used to foster what may bo a legitimate pleasure to those who could afford such. Would it bo becoming for the Governor of the "(totally', whsn enjoying kings' sport, to obtain such ciort at tlio cost, say, of four youths who emit their half-crowns together to obtain a' ticket on the totaltotor? Neither is it—l use the indicative here,— for many of our legislators to strive by horse racing to indulge their desire for excitement out of the profits of gambling.

Under such circumstances, how can oho reason with the to to bettor'.' Oan.ono say lo him lliat his trade is criminal and immoral? The action leaders of society guides tlio masses. Jlen are liko sheep. They, follow a leader. If men in the higher walks of life would walk after the higher morality much more would bo done to chock the .gambling spirit than all tlio harsh laws a Crown prosecutor could invent. Contrast the Georgian and Victorian periods of history. At anyralo no influence can bo mads upon the betting fraternity, and nothing be dono to check gambling so long as would-be reformers would cleanse the suburbs but lcavo the city defiled, 'l'he totalidator must

g°- . , I am constrained to sign my own name, but give way in the meantime to the wishes of'others. Thanking you, Sir, for., spaoa ill tho past, I must remain for the present x ' July 28. Ax Uxwurfxc- Pahtnei:.