VITAL ISSUES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 49, 4 February 1949, Page 4

VITAL ISSUES

Opinions expressed by correspondents are their own and, though published here because we believe in freedom of speech and of opinion, are not necessarily shared by this newspaper.

Sir,—ln March we are being asked to vote for or against legal offcourse betting and also for or against extended hours for the sale of liquor. Both are of vital importance to the well-being and true prosperity of our nation. Those who recognise the inherent moral danger in gambling will be quick to see that a vote for legal off-course betting is definitely a vote in favour of gambling as such. Think over the moral implications involved. A vote for extended hours for the liquor trade is a vote in favour of booze, for increased dividends for the beer barons, and for decreased money for the necessary living expenses of the victims and their families. Do I put it too strongly? Read a stronger statement! Read what Lord Chief Justice Coleridge of England said: “I can keep no terms with a vice that fills our jails, destroys the comfort of homes and the peace of families and debases and brutalises the people of these islands.” This outstanding authority was no crank, but a clear-thinking, impartial, Chief Justice of England. He had ample opportunity to see, at first hand in the cases brought before him, the pitiful effects and results of this vice, and he spoke from the depths of a long experience. . Let us carefully consider the farreaching possibilities involved in this vote. Yours etc., AWAKE.