ATTACK ON GAMBLING

Waipa Post, Volume 36, Issue 2146, 19 April 1928, Page 3

ATTACK ON GAMBLING

"DIRTY" RAFFLES.

"I was in the game when I was at Oxford, so I speak from experience," said Dr Stirling Woollcombe, Bishop of Whitby, addressing a men's meeting on the question of gambling. "I was lucky, and became extremely interested. My last bet was 10s on a 5 to 1 winner of the Chester Cup, yet my friend and I resolved after that race never to bet again, not because we had lost—we had won a considerable sum—but because we were finding out that when betting enters into you it saps your higher interests. I believe it would have driven me to hell if I had gone on with it. "If there is one thing more than another which makes men slack at work it is this damnable business. If we are not going to take an interest in our jobs we shall never be able to beat the foreigner, "There is an infernal lot of cant talked by men who say they do not mind whether they win or lose at cards, but must have a stake to add excitement. I always wonder whether such a man is a knave or a fool. Of course the real excitement in all gambling is the joy of putting somebody else's money into your pocket." The Bishop attacked the practice of holding raffles at church bazaars. "The church," he said, "must get clear of this dirty business if it is to set an example to the nation."