THE BOOKMAKER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10442, 23 April 1912, Page 2

THE BOOKMAKER.

EXPERIENCES IN WELLINGTON

POSTMASTER-GENERAL INTERVIEWED. [FROM OUR Co*REsroNHEJiT.] WELLINGTON, April 22.

Wellington is a busy centre for tho bookmaker, despite tho discouraging fact that under the law ho is a criminal, with 110 right to use the street or any other place, nor tho post office to carry on his " business." But the people who go to raco meetings or know just a littlo of street happenings in this city say without hesitation that not only does the bookmaker flourish, but there are more bookmakers now than before the passing of the restrictive legislation. It is no exaggeration to say that eighty people who proSper by the art of taking wagers could be seen in Wellington within ail hour on their busy days, when they come out openly into tho street, mostly outside large hotels, and briskly take bets and money from patrons who soera not to worry about tho possibility of a policemtm viewing the illegal transaction. One flourishing centre of the craft is in Taranaki Street. It catches tho factory worker mostly, while there ,are wharf brandies of tho fraternity doing a big cash trade. It is reckoned that the eighty to be found in the heart of the city are all financially reliable persons, who " pay out." Somo select hotels for this phase of their occupation. " You ought to seo the bar after a meeting; tho crush around the ' tote' is nothing to it," said one unusually talkative barmaid to mo when I spoke _of the bookmakers. The basis of betting is the totalisator quotation in every case except the lucrative side-line of doubles. The bookmakers know tho dividend promptly after a race, though the newspapers cannot publish that information. Apparently it needs scarcely any mystery by way of coding to secure an unchallenged passage through tho post office" for a private telegram giving this valuable news. The post offico is still used, despite all statutes to the contrary, for tlie betting business, which could hardly retain its present magnitude without that State institution. If the authorities can find a way of stopping the sending of remittances to betting agencies they will accomplish a, miracle. One well-known firm masquerades as woolbrokers, and gets its money orders in payment of bete quite easily, while postal notes are handier still. What " Tattersall's " would do without tho postal notes sent to a private address in Australia and returned to a banking account in New Zealand it is hard to say. Though tho laying of "tote" odds is illegal, thus is the unvarying custom. Tho bookmaker has an important advantage over his State rival, sinco ho will not pay a full dividend if it exceeds £lO for each sovereign invested oil a winner, or £5 for a second. This is the limit of tho "best" funis. Others savo much cash with a £7 10s limit on first horse. I brought under the notico of the Hon H. (t. Ell, Postmaster-General, the statement that an Auckland "Star" reporter successfully forwarded to a well-known bookmaking firm a telegram obviously relating to a bet. "Is this not illegal?" I asked. "We have taken advice from the Law Department and we are carrying out the advice wo have received," answered the Minister. " Doe's that advice result in tho prohibition of betting telegrams?" I asked. "At present I am not prepared to make a statement on that point," said the Postmaster-General. " the Department is carrying out the law, and will continue to. do it. The Department has not gone to sleep over Die matter, but the points you raise have only jubt been brought under my notice, and I cannot say more at present." Tho Rev J. J. North, a well-known anti-gambler, was asked if ho could give an explanation of tho strange position that eighty bookmakers are supposed to flourish undisturbed beneath the eyes of the law's representatives in the main streets of the city. The "New Zealand Times" recently said of this phase of tho question, "The police in Auckland appear to be doing rather better than in Wellington and other North Island towns. For instance, the bookmaker is doing business on the old stand without making even an attempt to screen his identity or purpose. Ho ' lays 'em' obligingly to clients new and patrons old all tho year round without the slightest fear, and, we trust, without favour. Everyone knows that betting is still as rampant as of yore, except perhaps tlie police, who seem strangely incapable of cleansing the place of this unsavoury influence." " Yes, that is so," said Mr North, when he road tho quotation. " I know that it is_ absolutely a fact, the main' trouble iB thai although we urged the Legislature to put the onus on tho suspected person to prove that he is not a bookmaker or a bettor, the House refused to do it. We also urged that the punishment should be imprisonment, without' the. option of a fine, but that was not done. I think the imposition of comparatively light fines and the extreme difficulty of semiring a conviction under the; present state of tho law has discouraged the police. They realise the impossibility of the position and in Wellington at any rate they do nothing."