The Waka Maori. WELLINGTON, TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1875. GAMBLING.

Waka Maori, Volume 11, Issue 12, 22 June 1875, Page 132

The Waka Maori. WELLINGTON, TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1875. GAMBLING.

Of the manifold temptations to which man is exposed, none perhaps is so utterly subversive of his moral and material prosperity as gambling. In all ages and conditions of man—savage or civilized—no device has been so pregnant of ruin as an uncontrolled indulgence in this detestable vice, whether by cards or dice, or any other means calculated to excite the unhallowed lust of play. Gambling may be truly designated the fruitful parent of evil. No human passion has tended to debase humanity so much. No propensity has so successfully undermined every honorable principle; so bitterly perverted every generous impulse of the human heart. It saps every natural tie between man and man. It uproots the holiest and tenderest affections. It sunders father and son. It estranges the husband and the wife, and causes the once doating parent to become deaf to his offspring s claims. It too often leads its worshippers through all the stages of deceit and guilt. Robbery and murder have been its frequent confederates. Fraud and falsehood are its familiar associates. The rich it beggars; the poor it enslaves. Of how many of its victims is suicide the last appalling resource, or to how many has it not been the ruin both of body and soul! Against the destructive practice of gambling, the admonitions of the wise and good of every age hay© been incessantly and energetically poured" forth. And nothing can more clearly demonstrate its utter iniquity than the simple fact that gambling is a secret >vice, one which but a few degraded nations permit, but which the laws of a nobler people punish upon detection by fine or imprisonment. We have frequently expressed a deep and sincere regret at learning that many of you Maoris were in the habit of indulging in card playing to a ruinous and disgraceful extent. This lamentable practice has again and again, we grieve to say, been brought under our observation. "We entreat you, our Maori friends, to weigh the matter calmly and seriously. Remember that the winner of to-day is almost sure to be the loser of to-morrow. And how are even, momentary gains acquired? In all probability by the ruin of a friend. Is that a fit or worthy manner for an honest man to acquire riches ? Would not both winner and loser be richer, happier, and better men did they devote the time, misspent in the plunder of each other, to the cultivation of their land, the increasing of their stock, and to the acquisition of food, clothing, and money for their wives and children ? Now, our Maori friends, you are a prudent and a people; reflect then, which is the most estimable in the sight of God and man, —the industrious, prosperous husbandman, or the naked, hungry, and ruined gamester!