TATTERSALL'S SWEEPS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 8 December 1913, Page 4

TATTERSALL'S SWEEPS.

We have a number of elusive measures on the Statute Book of New Zealand, desigued to minimise the evil of gambling. The proverbial coach and horses , can bo driven through nearly all of them. The other day a Dunedin tobacconist was charged with a broach of the gaming laws by receiving money from a constable to be despatched to Tattersail's. The defence was that the tobacconist received the money as agent for the constable, and not of Tattersall's, and that he received his commission from the constable. This plea was upheld by the Magistrate, who dismissed the case. One cannot blfnd his eyes to the fact, that, in spite of postal aaid other restrictions, thousands of pounds are being sent out of the Dominion every year for investment in Tattersail's sweeps. It is about time that the Legislature reviewed tho position. If the tdtalisator inflicts .no eerious injury on the public, a national sweep, conducted under proper supervision, would not be out of place. It would, at anyrate, prevent an annual drain upon the Dominion's resources, and would provide the State with another source of revenue. If people will gamble, let them do so in the least objectionable manner.