“WILL SWELL GAMBLING”

Taranaki Daily News, 21 October 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

“WILL SWELL GAMBLING”

GAMING ACT AMENDMENT'S. PRESBYTERIANS PROTEST. Objections to the private Bill aiming at certain amendments to the Gaming Act, are set out in the following letter which has been addressed by the public questions committee of the Presbyterian Church to the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, the Minister, of Finance. Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. J. A. Young:— “We are deeply concerned that a private member has introduced a Bill into the House which aims at amending the Gaming Act of 1908 in the direction of legalising the publication of totalisator dividends and the telegraphic transmission of totalisator investments. In view of the crisis through which .the Dominion is passing and of the great responsibilities which consequently rest upon the legislators of the land, we feel it to be a grave reflection. upon the manner in which members regard their responsibilities, that it should be proposed that they spend their time and energy in considering such matters. We feel that such procedure will unquestionably weaken public respect for Government in many quarters. “We do not propose at the present juncture to make any criticism of : the proposed amendments, except to say that should they become law they, will swell enormously the gambling which is already so widespread in its extent and so demoralising in its effects. On the majority of the working days of the week, the telegraph office throughout the land will be a huge betting machine and business men will find that their important telegrams will be held up while the wires run hot with betting investments. At no time could this be a good thing for any country, and in such a time as this it is surely the last thing that responsible legislators should be asked to consider.

“The spirit inherent in gambling is the very spirit which has contributed so largely in creating the conditions which have brought about the present crisis, and we have no hesitation in saying that it is an intolerable anomaly - that our legislators should be asked to imagine that they are doing a good and worthy thing toward rightly dealing; with the present crisis by considering legislation which will serve only to deepen and intensify the spirit of gambling throughout the land. The way out of the difficulties which beset us all to-day does not lie in arousing such a spirit in the people. “We therefore hope most earnestly that Parliament will avoid any course in connection with this proposed Bill which will give anybody cause to think of ‘Nero fiddling while Rome burned.' ”