“A MORAL LEPROSY.”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18349, 21 August 1929, Page 9

“A MORAL LEPROSY.”

DENUNCIATION AGAINST GAMBLING. BOOKMAKER PREFERRED TO TOTALISATOR. “We ministers know what a vampire gambling is to human life. It is a moral leprosy that corrupts everything it touches; it injures, degrades, and makes use of no human excellence except to degrade it.” In this forceful fashion the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh, of Devonport. denounced gambling before the Auckland Presbytery when presenting resolutions opposing the proposed Gaming Act. Mr Marsh took the opportunity to criticise Sir Edwin Mitchelson. president of the Auckland Racing Club, for his speech in support of the Act made at the annual meeting of the club, and issued a challenge to Sir Edwin or any other racing official to debate the question of gambling on the public platform. Anyone who had read Sir Edwin’s speech would agree, said Mr Marsh, that they had from the president of the racing club an emphatic repudiation of the malpractices of bookmakers. “We welcome him to our side so far,” he added. (Laughter.) “I am in profound disagreement with his other observations, however. Sir Edwin says that instead of the churches foolishly opposing the proposed Gaming Bill, their business is the elimination of the bookmaker. I wish to say with all the force at my command it is not our business to eliminate the bookmaker, but the business of the State. Bookmaking is a criminal offence, and it is not the business of any church to do what is the work of the police, however willing we are to co-operate w’ith them in promoting its elimination.” Mr Marsh said he had no objection to a person taking an interest in sport, but the gambling element perverted all true sport. “We maintain that gambling makes a fool of every man.” he added, to the accompaniment of “hear, hears.” “That is my reply to Sir Edwin Mitchelson. We have come to a time in our history when the Christian churches have to face what is the greatest social menace of to-day. Some look upon drink as the greatest evil, but in comparison with gambling it is a receding quantity as an influence for evil.” Mr Marsh then moved resolutions that the Auckland Presbytery draws attention to the alarming increase of gambling in recent years; that the totalisator tends to popularise and so increase a habit which is a fruitful cause of degredation and poverty; that the proposed amendment to the gaming laws is a retrograde step; that the Presbytery calls on the Government not only to throw out the proposed Bill, but also to sternly enforce the present gaming laws, especially with reference to bookmakers, and face the question of reducing the present facilities. In supporting the resolutions, the Rev. D. C. Herron supported the contention that gambling was one of the most serious evils in New Zealand today. Sir Edwin Mitchelson’s statements had a minor key in that he seeme dto be counting heads in respect to the Gaming Act. and was not too sure of the result. In response to a suggestion by the Rev. E. R. Harries that he would far rather have the bookmaker than the ■ totalisator, Mr Herron said the only redeeming feature about the totalisator was that when a man wanted to bet, he had to have his money in his hand. The resolutions were carried unanimously.