Untitled

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 696, 30 April 1892, Page 4

Here shall the Press the People's Eight maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain ; Here patriot Truth, her glorious precepts draw, Pledged to Religion. Liberty and Law.

Gambling is without doubt the curae of the colonies. Every grade of society has acquired the taint, and slowly but surely the evil is eating its way into the very heart of society. We are quite within the mark when we say that twenty-five per cent of our business failures are due to its pernicious influences, while our moral failures in nearly every instance owe their degradation largely to the mania for reckless speculation. Talk of the evil effects of strong drink. Why, it is not a circumstance compared with gambling. Drunkenness is really not a prevalent vice with us, but gambling is quite a fashionable pastime. Everyone engages in it. Errand boys invest a little of their weekly savings with the bookmakers on current racing events, women put off their grocer's bills for a month or two in order that they may back their fancies on the totalisator, and men of all classes think it quite the thing to risk a few pounds occasionally at the various race meetings whicn' are happening from time to time.

But this i 3 not the full extent of the evil. We have our clubs where men are afforded facilities for meeting their boon companions, and where card-playing for varying stakes forms the chief amusement. We do not refer to any club in particular ; there are many in New Zealand, and the shame is that in most there is a decided partiality for gambling with cards, while some are veritable gambling hells. It is useless to mince words. Club gambling is becoming a. greater curse in New Zealand than turf gambling ever will be, and its pernicious effects reach further. People reckon their losses on the racecourse by pounds and tens of pounds, but at the club card-table they lose by hundreds and thousands.

And who is it that loses the money? Is it the individual through whose hands it passes ? Certainly not. Card playing for high stakes is a prince's game, and one that has ruined many a millionaire, and it cannot be supposed that many millionaires engage in it in New Zealand. Recent experience has shown us that the money that is risked and lost in this reckless fashion is too frequently the hardearned savings of industrious people, or the trust money on the revenue from which the widow and orphan are dependent for their very existence. In our own city, we know that men have within a very recent period risked and lost thousands of pounds which never belonged to them, and that there are those amongst as who won that money and who in the eyes of their fellow citizens and Heaven are receivers of stolen or embezzled property. Gloss it as we will, there is no denying the fact that those men — we care not who they are— who have been Winning sums of money from certain profesBional men, who have since been proved to have shamefully betrayed their trusts, are dishonestly in possession of those monies, for they never belonged to the men who lost them.

The evil is a crying one, but howis it to be put an end to ? Our sapient legislators have been careful to provide machinery to prevent the investment of a few shillings in a sweepstake or the disposal of an article by lottery. They have made ample provision for the arrest of any dirty Chinaman who might seek to beguile the time, after his gardening labours of the dayj with the favourite fan tan. Bat prominent citizens may sit together night after night and gamble recklessly with large sums of money which never belonged to them, and which have been placed in their hands for safe keeping or investment, and the law looks on approvingly, and occasionally takes a hand itself. Shame on it, we say. No wonder the gambling curse is bringing disgrace and ruin on us, to an extent that a decade of depression and stagnation would be powerless to cause;

It is much to be regretted that members of the Auckland Board of Education should keep the teaching profession in a continual state of unrest over their various salary schemes. Two or three years ago, a new scale of salaries was adopted ~by the Board. One would have thought that this scale would have answered for some time ; but no. For the past nine months, a proposed scale has been before the Board and has been as pnblicly discussed as the appointment of the Governor. It is no nearer being adopted than when first proposed — in fact, it has met, with opposition from all quarters, and has only served to worry teachers. Surely teachers have worry enough from scholars, parents, and committees, and might look to the Board for support. Now, another scheme of salaries is to come forward which proposes ruthless retrenchment all round. £300 is to be the summuvi bonuin of the profession, and after years of conscientious work in managing large schools of from 600 to 1000 children, hampered by parents and committees and Boards, the teacher is told that he is too old for service and must look after himself the best way he can. What inducement is there for young men to enter the profession under these circumstances. The number who enter a profession is always influenced by the highest reward paid in that profession. If the highest reward is low, none but youths of inferior promise will present themselves. There is only one remedy for this continual state of unrest and worry. The funds which support our national system of education all come from the one source. Our teachers all receive their certificates from one source. All teachers throughout the colony work with the same syllabus. Then why should there not be one scale of salaries for the whole of the teachers of the colony ? Why should Otago teachers be paid higher salaries than Auokland teachers for doing the same work ? And why should the Taranaki teachers be paid lesß than those in Auokland receive ? Let the Department draw up a colonial scale of salaries, and instruct the Boards to pay according to this scale.

Mr W. L. Buickmade a good impression upon Auckland people by his address on Friday night. The National Liberal Association has not been taken up with any degree of enthusiasm in this part of the oolony, but this has been due largely to the fact that there is a Liberal Association here and that the National Liberal Association had no energetic organizer in oar midst. Mr Buick's logical and moderate speech has exercised a good influence in removing prejudices that existed against the new organization, while at the same time it has exemplified the folly of want of combination. One weakness of the Liberal cause is that the stronger

the principles of the man the weaker is his financial support to the cause. Too many of our prominent Liberals are ever on the look-out for payment for continuing to be Liberals, while the others are not disposed to maintain a swarm of politioal adventurers. The result is the formation of separate Liberal cliques, each of which schemes to outwit the others in exercising influence at election times. At other periods, they are dormant. The National Liberal Association is the best organising scheme that has yet been placed before the Liberals of New Zealand, but it will not be a suocess unless monetary aid is also forthcoming.

The serious charges which have been made against Mr E. M. C. Harrison, the respected Head Master of Beresford-street School, must have created a very painful impression throughout the colony. Few men can claim to have so firmly established themselves in popular esteem and confidence as he, and there are few indeed "hose reputation for strict integrity and uprightness is more . unimpeachable. These charges have been an astounding surprise to all who know, or have known, Mr Harrison. It is not fair to prejudge an enquiry, but if it be found that the charges are groundless and trivial, as we hope they may prove to be, then we hope that an example will be made of those who have preferred them. Teachers are in an exceptionally dangerous position in regard to such accusations, and a man's honour is too frequently at the mercy of any unprincipled boy or girl who may have a spite to gratify. We do not suggest that there were such motives in the present case. If it happens that the charges are sound, then simple justice demands that the sohool be placed in other control, and those who have made tha charges will deserve the thanks of the community. We do not envy them their reward.

Tidings come from the South of an agitation from some quarters for a further measure of Protection, or, in other words, another increase in the Customs duties. It is a pity that all oar taxation, in its multifarious forms, could not be rolled into one great tax pill and swallowed holus bolus under the name of Protection. People seem to be delighted with the very sound of the word, and look upon it as synonymous with prosperity. They cannot be made to see that more Protection means another shilling on every pair of boots their poor children wear, or an extra couple of shillings on each of the woollen garments their wives and little ones require, and ought to have during the winter. There is no form of taxation so cruel as this Protection, for it places the necessities of life far beyond the reach of those who most require them, and compels them to pay more proportionately than rich men do. They say it gives more employment and better wages. Absurd fallacy. Its effect has been to increase the cost of living, and at the same time the keenness of competition, with the natural result of lower wages, and it has fostered the infamous system of sweating which is getting as strong a hold in New Zealand as it has already got in Melbourne.

A new temperance beverage has been introduced here under the name of hop syrup. It makes a. pleasant and palatable drink and is already becoming very popu-. lar. Mr J. M. Jefferson, chemist, is the manufacturer.

Mr J. H. Hannan, clothier and draper, offerß special value in goods he has received direct from the manufacturers. His trade is a cash one, under his personal supervision, and having no middleman's profits or rent to pay, he can afford to deal well with his customers.