DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 255, 27 October 1937, Page 8

DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS

AUCKLAND GAMBLING DENS YOUNG WOMEN INTOXICATED [ Per Press Association. J AUCKLAND, Oct. 26. “The police are doing their best to put a stop to places which bring young women down to tne lowest level. Gambling dens seem to be springing up in Auckland, and are really a course,” said DetectiVe-Ser-geant McHugh at the Police Court this morning when charges were brought against seven young women and 29 men arrested in a police raid last night on alleged gaming house premises. “We found a girl aged 15 in a drunken condition outside the premises, and she will later appear before the Children’s Court,” Detec-tive-Sergeant McHugh added. He described the difficulty experienced by the police in entering barricaded premises, stating that electric bells were used. The police alleged that the place was not only a gambling den but also that sly grog was sold in large quantities. He said that the majority of young women on the premises were under the influence of liquor. “It was a dreadful sight to see them with men in these premises,” Detective-Sergeant McHugh added. John Sidney Cormack, charged with being the occupier of premises in Kingston Street, he conducted them as a common gaming house, was remanded on the application of the police for a week in bail of £lOO. One girl, who was caught in a raid last week, was lined £2, and the six others were fined £1 each. Twenty-eight men were ordered to pay fines ranging from £2 to £3.