THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1906. THE ANTI-GAMBLING MOVE-MENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13695, 11 September 1906, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1906. THE ANTI-GAMBLING MOVEMENT.

The deputation, organised, by the Council of the Churches in Wellington, which waited on the I'romicr yesterday to ask that legislation should be' enacted to restrict the volume of gambling in the colony will not be able to complain that it met with an, unsympathetic reception. Sir Joseph Ward, like the leading public men in New South 'Wales and Victoria, has come to realise that repressive measures of some sort are necessary if the canker of gambling which has eaten it? way into the heart nf tho.commmiity is not to be'permitted to spread its corrupting influence throughout the whole body of society. About the totalizator less was said by the Premier than about various other forms of gambling, And while most people who have interested" themselves in the crusade, against gambling in our midst have convinced themselves that the abolition of the totalisator is- the first thing to be aimed at, it was rather a curious circumstance that there was no special condemnation of the machine at the Jocal anti-gambling demonstration in tho Garrison Hall on Sunday last. Some of the judges have not hesitated to express their conviction from the Supreme Court bench that the legalised nsp of the totalisator has been a potent means of fostering the gambling habit, which unquestionably constitutes, as all

enlightened thinkers hold, 0110 of the greatest social vices of the day. Mr Justice Cooper has, however, formed no concluded opinion of whether'.- the increase of gambling in the colony is due to the introduction and legalisation of the totalisntfir: ho merely points to the fact 'that gambling in the colony has become' more extensive and has affected a larger -area, of the population since the tntalisator was legalised in order to afford what ho describes* as an easy and apparently respectable means f6r speculating at a race meeting. Hut people who have, perhaps, better opportunities than any, judge of the Supremo Court can have of observing the operation of the onuses of which the effects come prominently under the notion of the. judiciary, hai'e no such doubts as those entertained by Mr Justico Cooper on this point. Mr llerries, who-tie-livored a spirited defence, of the totalizator in the Lower House last week, while he admitted that the vice ofgambling had increased, and is increasing, in dm colony, declared that there were more bookmakers in the colony before the. totalisatnr was legalised than .there are no\v. Even' if .Mr He'irics's assumption was a sound one, this would amount-, iinell'eot,'to an acknowledgment that thefotalisalor is responsible for the heavy.increase in gambling that has occurred'in the; colony. Hut" it-, is idle to assert tliafctlieiiilrodiieUoii of th« totalizator has brought about a reduction in the number of bookmakers who do business -in the colony. It may be that there are not so many persons in the* colony as- there formerly were from whom "a backer can obtain long odds to a large amount concerning tho chances of a horse in a race, but the anuy of disreputable parasites in each of the principal' centres in the colony who .have apparently uo lawful means of support but live on the proceeds of their betting >'at totalisator odds with creatures-hardly less contemptible than .themselves is the direct ; prodnot of the legalisation'of" the machine. The totalizator, as Mr -Herring claims for it, does not cheat4ho.se who do business, with it and it does, not solicit business.' Hut the State employs .various a'gencies to procure business, for'; if. In the first; place it has'stamped it with the badge of respectability by legalising it, and in the second place, it creates facilities whereby people in whatever part of the j colony they may be may telegraph their money for ''investment" on'the totalisator wherever it may happen that races are being held. And'it is in the countenance that has been given by law to gambling, through..the recognition of thn, total|sator, that the grave mistake made by ' the State consists. So long as this instrument'of .gambling is IcgnU isctl'the,'State is compromised in its attempts to cope 1 with other forms of gambling. Its own bands are not clea 1 !!. It is, of course, impossible that gambling can ever bo suppressed. The,vice, as Mr Justice Coopor observed, is as old as human nature, niul it is quite ineradicable. But' its inh'crent i'm- : morality, or non-morality, renders it Entirely improper that the State should throw the cloak of protection over it •in any form. And the first step that must bo taken-.in any crusade against gambling,-if success is to be achieved, must be tl.o.declaration of a divorce between the State and any instrument of gaming. Evidently Sir Joseph Ward,, though be is unwilling to go the'whole length, is now prepared, to remove some of the facilities for gambling that have hitherto been provided by a department under his personal control. Ho proposes that, as tho deputation yesterday asked, racecourses shall bo isolated. If betting on horse-racing can be confined to the racecourses the evil will doubtless bo shorn of,.an aspoct that is highly offensive to a' JaVgo section of the commnnity. In Auckland, Christchnreh, Wellington,, and Pnnodin the streethotting nuisance is .glaringly prevalent. Tho ennctfopnt of a law which will permit of tho prosecution and punishment of persons who bet in' tho public streets or, as the Premier also proposes, with infants, will bphnilodby reformers with 'pleasure.., It is only to be hoped that the law will be so direct and explicit in its terms as to permit offenders no loophole of escape from the scope of its provisions and as to allow of no-quib-bling, such as that which has been heard' over the definition of "a place." Tho effort to stem the tide which, tho Premier has been ' assured, carrieil two millions sterling out of tho colony last year for gambling purposes, chiefly for tho enrichment, we presume, of tho "ntorprising proprietary that exists under the protection of tho Tasninnian Government, will also bo warmly supported by all right-tljinking persons in tho community. Itot so long as the State, by reaping a share of the profits of the totalizator, remains particops crimiiiis, the public corisciouco cannot be satisfied. The proposals the Premier has in view can only bo regarded as an instalment of.reform.