BETTING EVILS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 10 February 1913, Page 5

BETTING EVILS

STATEMENT BY POSTMASTERGENERAL. (By Telegraph—Pres? Association.) CHRISTOHCUCH, Last Night. The Hon. fi. Heaton Rhodes, PostI master-General, arrived from Wellington to-day, arid leaves by the iirst ex- ! press to-morrow for Dunedin, Queonstown and Mount Cook. In an interview, the Minister referred to an ar-ticle-'in a local newspaper, alleging that the Postmaster-General is aiding and abetting bookmakers in • fforing 'incitements to young men to gamble on horse races, by delivering bettingcards, posted by bookmakers. Mr Rhodes said that undoubtedly by section 28 of the Post and telegraph Act, 1908, the Postmaster-General has the right to prevent the uel'very of correspondence to any person either in New Zealand or abroad who be has reasonable-grounds to suppose is engaged in receiving any money r..s a consideration for assurance, expressed or implied, to pay money on any event,, relating to a.'horse-race, that is to say shortly, who is engaged in betting. That betting cards are sent through the post is a matter of common knowledge to the. postmaster and his officers. If these bettingcards are sent in open envelopes they are open to the scrutiny of a |os tmaster, who then may reasonably be supposed to bi< at liberty to take action in regard to them, allowed and prescribed by section 30 of the ActWhen the. cards are in closed envelopes, the post office is in a different position. Apart from the fact that presumably a postal officer has ro means of ascertaining tlie contents of .closed postal packets, the Postmast.crGeneral'deprecates in his officers any system of prying or espionage in respect to open packets, and officers are expected and are accustomed only to challenge isuch .breaches of law as their usual duty discharged in usual way, makes them cognisant of fact of an infraction of the provisions of the law, and of coming under the animadvension of section 28 of the Act. This.becomes a matter of.legal proof, generally on the part of persons cutside the post office. When such proof is offered the Postmaster-General, he is under the necessity of taking notice of it. Tn any case, the matter has again to be referred to the SolicitorGeneral, with; the view of ascertaining wbat, if any, responsibility the Post-Master-Gonoral lias, to take farther - action