THE BOOKMAKING CHARGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 254, 6 January 1941, Page 4

THE BOOKMAKING CHARGE

Dear Sir, In your issue of December 23rd» you give' an account of the charging, of a bookmaker in the Whakatane Police Court and the resultant fine, of £25. 1 notice also your comments on the case and must compliment! you on the clean principle you have shown in this matter. The in this town has, beet* a positive disgrace and an insult to the decent section of the comunity. Some of us haxi hopes of a decided improvement a few\months ago but these hopes have not been realised and unless someone takes an active interest in this matter things Avill go from bad tb worse. In your account of the Police Court proceedings the prosecuting officer stated that the defendant had only two previous convictions-"—he thought. 1 should like to suggest to the Sergeant that he inspect the Court records and I have a very good idea that he will find that he has, rathe ; r understated the case. In any case he has no right to gloss over anything; his duty is to see that law is administered with fairness to all. In addition, it would look more like justice if all bookmakers were charged; before magistrates. » I sincerely trust that a mitre capablel pen than raine will take up this case and give it the publicity it calls for. Now that you, Mr Editor, have drawn attention to the existing state of affairs in this little town, I trust that the powers that be will do their duty and finish th« long delayed iob of cleaning out the bookmaker and any other moral cesspit that happens to be found here.

Yours etc., Justice 1 for ALl>< (Unfortunately owing to their nature, many of the statements mads by our correspondent have had to be deleted. Though the majority of them may represent public opinion no confirmation exists and to pub-» lish them would constitute a definite charge against certain authotit-» ies. Other facts mentioned, such as the extent of the business carried on by the defendant, are already known to the public and require little!, if any, repetition and the suggested insult to the community, can also be jud g'ed by the general public. Without confirmation of the charges brought by our correspondent names have been deleted and >his lengthy letter considerably reduced. Editor.)