ANTI-GAMBLING CRUSADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13695, 11 September 1906, Page 3

ANTI-GAMBLING CRUSADE

DEPUTATION TO SIR JOSEPH WARD;, IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER. PROBABLE LEGISLATIVE ACTION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, September 1C A large deputation, numbering about 50 persons and organised by the Wellington Council 'of Evangelical Churches, wailed upon the Premier this morning for the purpose. of urging the desirability of the Government adopting repressive measures in regard to the spread of gambling, the. suppression of .the totalisator and other connected with hdtse racing. The deputation, was headed by 'the Rev. Dr Gibb, and included the Mayor of-Wel-lington (the Hon. T. W. Hit-lop) and a largo number of clergymen and 'prominent residents of Wellington. Amongst ' tho members of tho [House present were Messrs Ell (who, introduced tho deputation), E. G. \Allon,' Poole, Tanner, Ngata, Aitkcn, Stall- • worthy, Sidoy. awl Remington. ■ The requests brought forward by the deputation were as follow:—(1) The abolition of tho totalisator, on the ground thai it gives State sanction ami respectability to a vieo and has enormously increased the area of gambling. (2) The isolation of| racecourses'from telegraphic and telephonic' communication,' whieh will tend to restrict gambling to tho actual course .where races aro being held,- (3) Tho rendering illegal of. tho publication of - betting news and results in the daily papers. THE DEPUTATION'S' REQUESTS. The Rev. Dr Gibb said although the deputation was arranged by tho Counoil - of Evangelical Churches,' there were others , present who were not connected with that body/ They ■ hoped that their prcsonce would lead to an 'extension of the Government's proposals for dealing with gambling. Tho Corernineril had already shown that it was aware of the very great havoo that was lieiug caused by gambling throughout the whole community, and tho deputation would show that a large section of the community was -prepared to stand by'the'Government, even if it went. a good deal farther iu tho way .of repressive .legislation than- it appeared lo be going."' They were aware of i what had been taking place in New South Wales and Vicloriu, ttnd although probably the evils caused by gambling were not so great in New Zealand as in the' Australian States, yet they were sufficiently grave, and unless they were very much mistaken they were steadily on the increase. The community * seemed to be en the verge of a catastrophe, and, to judge by the statements that had been made, not only by ministers of religion and moralists, but by judges of the Supreme Court. • that catastrophe was cot merely a moral one, but also in » cotumervial sense, and was n»t very far off. The deputation hoped > that there would- be stjaw such provisions , as had been adopted iu "A'.ssi:r*lta for the purposs of granpiinr inch this '"hideous and monstrous, iniquity."

The Rev. J. J. North emphasised the argument that th* irice of srimbliasr was being made both easy sad respectable by the legalising ot the totilisator. • The isolation was urged tor two reasons: Firstly, this the conveniences it present existing' not only enabled money to be wired from all parts of the colony to the courses for investment on the totalisator, but people on the course were 'also able,by means of the telegraph and telephone, to do business, with the bookmakers in the towns. The principle which had already been conceded by the refusal of telephonea to the bookmakers should be alto applied to ihb racecourses. It was ■also urged that the publication of forecasts of racing results and amounts of dividends should be prohibited, as the publication of such matter undoubtedly stimulated betting. The other speakers, were the Mavor of Wellington, Mr A. R. Atkinson, and Mr C. SI. Luke. , . ■ Mr Atkinson expressed pleasure that the Government intended to prevent foreign betting agencies'disseminating their literature through our Post Office- He also drew attention to the need for stricter supervision over street' betting, and criticisedthe banks for taking advantage of every opportunity for.observing holidays on race days. Mr Luke, in the course of his remarks, expressed pleasure with last week's divi* sion on Mr Ell's bill, which showed that about 50 per cent, of the members of'each side of tho House were opposed to ' the totalsiator. •• THE PREMIER'S REPLY. Sir Joseph Ward, in reply, said he fully recognised tho.gravity of the position to. which gambling had'attained in New Zealand. He was certain that the country would have to legislate with a view to its repression.—(Applause.) As to the direction in whiph the legislation should go, ho would only briefly give them an indication of what was in -his own mind. Since his return to tho colony a gentleman, who was not with ; the deputation, had brought under-his notice the fact that no less a sum than £2,100,000 was sent out from Wellington alone, last year for gambling purposes. That' was a larger sum than cither ho or anyone else had contemplated as being possible. But that statement eamo from'a gentleman'who was in a position to form a fairly accurate estimate of what was going on in this respect. In face of that, ho (Sir Joseph) was quite persuaded that something would have to be done to minimise the effects of such operations, the payments being made ,to a very large extent by persons who could not afford it. —(Applause.) At tho present moment neither the telegraph'nor the postal service, could legally do what it. had been represented to him there and elsewhere it should do. Tho public telcijraphs wore available for everybody to use, and without a drastic alteration of the law it was not practicable to throw upon the telegraph officials in different'parts of the colony the onus of

' dictating or suggesting to any person who might go to send a telegram as to what communciatipn they, sltonld send. But lie was persuaded an alteration of the law. was rcquired,?aiid it should be in the direction of milking it difficult; or next to impossible, for moneys to be telegraphed or posted to the different racing centres when meetings were taking place. Of course, in this, as in every British. country, there was a largo section of the community who believed in and admired racing as a sport, and tliat section bad a right tolKj considered.— (" Hear, hear.") What he took it, any but. au extremely prejudiced person would desire was that, while, this section of the public should be at liberty to carry on racing in a legitimate way, the opportunity for evil effects as the outcome of this racing should be minimised to the greatest possible extent.—(" Hear, bear.") His' own impression was that, the evils wore largely duo to the fact that whenever a race meeting was taking place, in any part, of the colony circumstances made it exactly as it that meeting was faking place in the midst of every portion of the community. Legist lation then -should be in- the direction of isolating race meetings, and allowing those who belioved in racing to carry it on legitimately and in a fair way, but confining the operations to the racecourse itself.— (Applause.) His _ own impression was if that could be achieved the other aspect of tb'o question relating to the totalisator would be met. He was certain that street betting should ho suppressed altogether, and ho was equally certain that anyone who allowed young people—whether they were bank clerks or anyone else under the 'ago of 21 years—to either make otv (alio a bet should be criminally prosecuted.— (Loud applause.) If they could prevent tho younger portion of the community from getting' on the wrong road, then they wero doing something in their day and generation. The matter of preventing tho publication of dividends and results was one for consideration. The practice was misleading,' and had the effect of keeping actively before the people information that could do very little good. Ho was quite in favour of trying to check the growth of the evil in rpgard to the dissemination of racing and betting news throughout the colony. With reference to the Naming and Lotteries Act, provision for the protectioit of a. witness would be made this session.—('■ Hear, hear.") . As far as the Government'could it'would stop the circulation of news .regarding Tattorsall's sweeps and matters relating to lotteries coming into this country from other parts, and so far as the 'post office was used as a, medium the Government, certainly could step that, and they were prepared to ask Parliament- for authority to do it. Of course, as they knew, Cabinet could only go as far as it had authority for from Parliament, but bis owii opinion was that it was tho desire of the country as a whole to prevent the growth of this gambling evil, and in any action they took they wanted to be placed in the. position of having the moral suasion of the people behind it! lie was quite with Dr Gibb jnd Mr Justice Cooper in their view that it was idle to suppose that'by legislation they could prevent people giving vent to their mind imless there was a.'- good, sound pubtic opinion permeating the country" generally on this subject. He. would look into all"matters mentioned by the deputation with a view to seeing what could be done. His opinion was that tho whole question should be brought under review with a view to putting 6omc. restrictive legislation on the' Statute Book, and he hoped, if- time permitted; to do it this session.—{" Hear, hear.") There were, of course, some phase.?''of this question they could iiot interfere \ with. It was, well known that in some private houses gambling was going on to an enormous extent— notably bridge. But they could .iiot step in and prevent : that' However, if right thinking peonle would realise the gravity of this evil and show somo self-restraint in matters' of this kind ho thought that by degrees this would do more than any legislation they could place on the -Statute Biwk.. As Mr Justice Cooper had pointed out, the State summoned a Chinaman for playing' fan-taii, whilst next door thousands might perhaps bo played for, and thus whilst they were suppressing ii minor evil tf.crp was no doubt a very much worse canker existing amongst people who ought to be .above this sort of'thing. Whoever was responsible to: The substitution of the totalisator for the bookmaker no doubthad an idea at that' time that they were improving the positjqn. :. The, question of (he British Government dissociating itself from any interest in horse rasing was one which be thought was right, but he should be rather sorry to seo the system .whieh existed 'in England in respect to horse racing introduced into this country, and he would bo equally sorry to see tlio Australian system adopted here. :OverV-here tho whole, racing business in comparison with what it was here had been of a more extravagant character both in. Melbourne and Sydney, '■' where race meetings took place every day in the year, and there the evil existed to an extent which ho hoped would never bo readied in this:country. He thought they, w'ero justified at this junc : ture in limiting the number of race meet-' iijgs and in trying.to get the community-' generally to belp them'in stemming tlio growth of this evil. 1 Ho would go into the representations mode by tho -deputation with his colleagues, and hoped they would be able to effect some improvement-' in this direction.—("Hoar, hear.") 'k '

STATEMENT BY. MR ELL. , Sir Ell, whose bill for the abolition of the totalisator was before tho House last week, informed mo after tho interview with Sir J. G. Ward that tho general feeling amongst the leading members of the deputation was one of gratification with the Premier's statement. "Wc arß all," ho said, " very pleased with tho tone of tho reply, with the exception that there was perhaps a little, disappointment at (he absence of a. more emphatic declaration in regard to the totalisator. It is recognised, however, that this is perhaps a difficult question for Sir Joseph to make a definite pronouncement upon". In- regard to ihc machine, however, ono very .gratifying statement was made by the Premier—viz., 'hat if the issue of .totalisator licenses is to bo continued the operations of the machine will bo confined to the particular "racecourse on which a meeting is hoine he'd. That will be a big step forward 'in tho direction of our object. The Premier's promises in respect to other matters were very gratifying." Mr Ell states that it is his intention to a*rain bring' forward the provisions of his Totalisator Abolition Bill as an amendment to the Gaming and Lotteries _ Bill, which is being introduced by the minister of Justice. • /