LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Chronicle (Levin), 2 December 1946, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

AN INESCAPABLE COMMUNITY CONCERN Sir, — Elections are like sweeping :ha chimneys apd springcieaning che house. They cause clouds oi, dust, disturb the spiders, generate some heat and shift arouud the furniture of our national establishment. When the spring clean is over, as ' the election now is, the occupants of the house thankfully come to realise that the various rooms, with their cp.mforts amd !:heir discomforts, their good ppints and their bad points, are essentially what they always were. The more chings change the more they remain the same, was ho.w a cle.ar French mind expressed it. As iong as New zealand is New Zealand, with people, soil and climate as chey are, shades of dempcratic government, even when b.acked up oy a new executive authority, are of secondary importance. A b.ottle of new tonic or a refill of the old is never as important as a death cer*cificate signed by a qualified medical practitioner. New Zealand's death certificate has not been Jgned. In other words, after our spring clean we turn again to live as we have been living. The chimneys may have less soot- about thpm, but •-he dining room grate still smokes. 'The westerly wind still threshes the tender growth in the garden and will continue to do so until a brush fence or a trellis is built, or a nedge planted and grown. Thp kitchen sink which annoys thp housewife by going pop-plop-pop does need more than investigaaon snd report by the housewife's iiusband, or his plumber friend. Only by facing and removing drawbacks one by one does a householder improve his property, and in national life the same technique is required. Many people in New Zealand would not agree that gambling is fast becoming a serious drawback to the attainment of worthier levels of national life. Gambling, both legal and illegal, is dbeply embedded in the social life of New Zealand. Influential groups, which have a keen eye for places where much money can be made with a minimum of effort, are working to have the facilities for legal gambling extended — allegedly as a counter to bookmaking. No one in his right mind would venture to suggest that petty theft, or any other offence against existihg law, should be looked at with the same tender concern some citizens want to show towards bookmaking. Experience in other countries has shown clearly that the provision of additional facilities for gambling merely increases gambling without checking illegal practices. In New Zealand betting on the totalisator on the race course is practically the only 'major legal form of organised gambling. During the' racing year ended July 31, 1929, the amount wagered on the totalisator was £7,203,000. A sharp decline to £3,678,000 took place in 1932-33. A gradual recovery to £7,981,000 in 1938-39 followed. After the outbreak of war with Japan in 1941, the number of racing days which had been 320 per annum, was reduced by half and resrricted ro Saturdays and public holidays. Despite the curtailment the totalisator receipts increased to £10,279,000 for 163 racing days in 1943-44, and to £12,030,000 for 182 days in 1944-45. For the first eight months of 1945-46 racing year, the

totalisator receipts were £13,180,000 for 182 racing days. For a full racing year of 320 days one might reasonably expect that a sum of £20,000,000 would go on the totalisator. That would mean £11 per head of our population. Of every £1 put on the totalisator 16s- 61d goes in dividends, ls 9fd in ^Government taxes and ls 73d to the racing clubs. The question facing New Zealand appears to be whether or not the sporting and recreational aspects of racing can survive increasing subordination to the business of organised gambling. The minor form of legal gambling in New Zealand drags along under the title "Alluvial Gold Art Unions." For the three years ended March 31, 1945 the average annual gross subscription to art unions was £243,000. Out of every £100 subscribed, £25 was paid in prize money, £27 in e^penses and commissions and £10" in ' lottery duty, leaving £38 to'be distributed to the philantropic, charitable and patriotic. funds,, or to undisclosed objects. The average net profit was less than £92,000 per annum. Influential .pressure groups in New Zealand seem to be advocating the setting up of a legalised State lottery as an alternatirve to local rating for the purpose of flnancing the hospitals of the country. A s.ection of the report of a select committee of the British House of Commons is relevant here. The committee stated that "no. modp of raising m,oney appears. to your cpr»T mittee so burdensome, so pernicious and so unproductive." The people of Britain cgn boast that not tor a century has their Government, or any of their public bodies, sojd a lottery ticket. How ma-ny New Zealanders when they see -what is involved, want their Government to go into the lottery business? How rriany would like to see. the present lottery tickets no longef sojd throughout our land? The future will declare it. In the Irish HospitaJ Trust lotteries, over a period of nparly six years, only £12 out of every' £100 invested foxrnd its way to. the hospitals and the Red Cross. That is a small re.turn for turning the! 'Irish Free State froni end to end \mto what the CathoJic Herald has called "a sordid gambling d'en." Certain issues in p.ubliq" life call for, and will .continue to Gall: for, the att'ention apd cpncern of all citizens, irrespe.ctive of their ppj.iti-

•cal party loyalties, and gambling is ;one of them. Yourp etc., " ' I A. SALMOND. ILevin, Nov. 29.