COLONIAL WOMEN GAMBLERS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12398, 13 November 1908, Page 4

COLONIAL WOMEN GAMBLERS.

Miss Jessie Acketmann, F.R.G.S., publishes an article m the "Westminster "Gazette" on the prevalence of gambling amongst women in New Zealand and Australia. : . "Much of tho gambling by women," she says, "is strictly on the quiet, and is never known beyond their own small circle. Infact, .it is not; much khowh beyond the .-..little groups who indulge, until through . losses, the gamblers are reduced to extremities' to meet their obligations without ■ having to call upon-itheir husbands and make known J tofthenv the situation. I have been \ trying to find .out why these women \ who are; well provided for, have, good \ homes, plenty of clothes, all the com- ' forts of; life, and many of the lux-uries^-why it is they gamble?. I find that reasons vary. With men usually it is pure love of money. Many men depend ■ wholly, on gambling as a means of livlihood. But most of the women s,eem to^ resort to gambling as a variety to tame life, uninteresting because of its monotony 7 and lack of excitement." .

Miss '; Ackertnann tells of whitehaired women who are in no way embarrassed at being seen in the very act o$ 'gambling.'? During- a visit she -paid to a race she Baw . ''dressmakers, typists, nurses, milliners,' and working women of every grade ;and type, all of whom had staked. 2s _6d to ss" on the -run." Many or tho J most smartly-dressed women, she declares, were' hoping to 'cover the cost, of their finery -by their winnings.. The totalisator lends a «ertain . respectability to the- craze. : "To my mind,' 'concludes Miss Ackorman,, "the' most alarming feature of life in both the States and. the Dominion is an ever-present, almost uppermost 'desire to get something for nothing, -or as nearly nothing as possible. All the J:ree 'education in the ' world will never establish ideals worthy of the" foundation of a great nation when moral .'principles' are be-' 1 ing undermined' by legislative recog-J nition of vice in one of its most de-; grading forms." V ( ■ ■ -j .... ._ . , J