BETTING IN DUNEDIN STREETS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 35

BETTING IN DUNEDIN STREETS.

The City Council had before it at lastweek's meeting a recommendation by the General Committee that a by-law bo framed,a*, suggested by the Anti-Gambling League, to suppress gambling, betting or wagering and bookmaking in the streets of Dunedin.Cr Dawson boiled the cat by moving that this recommendation be out out of the report. This was, ho said, another piece of grandmotherly legislation, and it was altogether unnecessary, since there was power to do all that was required under by-law No. 2 Cr Solomon supported the amendment in a. speech which ought to have set some of the councillors thinking. It seemed to him, he said, that by-law No. 2 was quite sufficient tomeet all requirements if the police took proceedings, and if they did not take proceedings, and the council thought they should, the council's own officers could act. Anyonepassing the Grand Hotel corner on a Saturday night would see hundreds of personsloitering there, against any one of whom a prosecution could not fail. If the by-law now proposed wero passed it could not be enforced. Men who wanted to bet would arrange their wagera in the street and Btep into an hotel to book them. Ho did not see how the councH could posibly frame a by-law toprevent two men from making a wager if they wanted to do so. Loitering, on the otherhand, could be prevented by using the power* they already had. The proposal to make this* precious by-law was, nevertheless, carriod. thevoting being sto 4^ Crs Dawson, Gore,.Howlibon, and Solomon formed the minority; thefivo who voted the other way were Cra Christopher. Haynes. Chisholm. Park, and Denniston. A special meeting of the- council is to boheld on the 19th inst. to make the by-law. And that is all that we shall hear of it, unle&sr I am very much mistaken.' since the men who wish to bet are not likely, unless they are born fools, to come within the clutches of this enactment.