THE GAMING ACT.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13460, 5 December 1907, Page 5

THE GAMING ACT.

NOTES FROM i.GHRISTCHURCH. Per Preus Association. , CHRISTGIJURCH. December 4. At the meeting of the Canterbury Methodist Synod to-day the presidents (Rev. H. R* Dewbbury) in referring to the new Gaining, and Lotteriic Act, said! that there might be.some admirable features in connection with it but the perpetuation of the totalisator was a fatal blot. A still ghastlier blot .was tJi« licensing of bookmakers, and' he hoped. that the Methodist Church would express itself strongly regarding everything that tended to put its imprimatur on vice, that legalised and rendered 'respectable a traffic which was in a large degree detrtvtabk*. A representative of a local newspaper who Get out to-day to ascertain whether street betting was being carried on inChrisLchurch now, and if so to what extent, succeeded in milking one bet with m bookmaker direct, and two others with agents of bookmakers. Two df the* bets were made in the street, and the other in an hotel, and the 'investigator felt convinced that he could have made' many' more belis had ho pursued his quest further. Some of the bookmakers approached said that they wer* waiting for licenses and did not want to bet.