THE GAMBLING QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3132, 8 March 1909, Page 4

THE GAMBLING QUESTION.

If the Prime Minister considers tha 1 : he has fairly shelved the gambling question by the latest amendment to the Lotteries and Gaming Act, he will quickly be undeceived. At the Methodist Conference just concluded in Wellington, it was resolved "that the Conference emphatically pretests against the continued legalisation of the totalisator, and the nefarious calling of the bookmaker, believing that these, in an alarming manner, are fostering the spirit of gambling in the Dominion," and it was further decided that a copy of the resolution should be sent to the Premier. When Parliament pretended to be seriously endeavouring to minim ise gambling in the community its legislative eirort resulted in passing an amendment, the two chief features of which were the fostering of the bookmaker's business, and an unwarrantable interference with the liberty of the Press, but what it did not forsee was that its virtuous conduct was going to result in an increase in gambling. Every proper minded person recognises that gambling ought to ba sternly checked; that the Legislature should discourage the vice to every extent, compatible with a reasonable curtailment of the liberty of the people. The resolution referred to is simply another ohot in the campaign against gambling that is in progress. Sooner or later the Government will have to face the position —there is too much gambling in the Dominion, and the people know it, and are inclined to set their face against it.