CASE FOR CHURCHES

Chronicle (Levin), 4 July 1947, Page 7

CASE FOR CHURCHES

Press Association

Bookmakers Have Too Much Assistance

Bv Telearavh-

WELLINGTON, July 3. All tlie churches were solid and united on the question that an extension of organised gambling among members of the public, was absolutely indefensible, said Dr. O. C. .Mazengarb, connsel for the assoeiated churches, in an addresS to the Gaming Oommission today. By recognising the present position which enabled gambling to take place through .the totalisator on eertain racecourses, tlie churches were not compromising with the evil. The churches recognlsed that it would require a strong case sapported by overwhelming public opinion, to liave the totalisator abolished rltJgether. Those people who asked for elianges in the present laAvs should establish a strong case before- they were altered. THere had been some misunderstanding of wliat the churches stood for. They accepted th-e present facilities for gambling recognising that those facilities existed in resppnse to a public demand but they did not aecept the present lev-el of gambling. They were opposed to any attempt to have further organised gambling. They asked that the existing law against gambling be more strictly enforced and demauded that the Government cease to allow its own serviees to be used for the furtherance of both legal and illegal gambling.

The activites of bookmakers m New Zealand were being considerably aided by Government departments, said Dr. Mazengarb. "It is a bad thing when the laws are freely infringed, " he said, ' ' and it is worse when the State, through its oflicials, connives at breaches of the law. ' ' Dr. Mazengarb was speaking in support of liis contention that bookmaking eould be greatly lessened if the State reaily wanted it to be. It was hard to credit, he said, that the Sportsmen's Association itself had ten or more un-' listed telephones and large toll accounts incurred on race days witliout it dawnIng on the department that the telephones of this association were for the promotion of illegal betting. A Supreme Court Judge a f'ew vears ago commented that the department had been. "actively assisting" the business of the aecuseJ bookmaker. A chief racecourse inspector, in giving evidence before the Oommission, had stated bluntly that the bookmakers got "too much as-, sistance from the Post and Telegrapli Department." It appeared in evidence that the Police Department knew the names of bookmakers aqd, in many instanees, the telephones used by them. The churches therefore, urged tliat procedure should be recommended vvhereby, on information from the police that a telephone was being used for the purpose of illegal gambling, the lessee should be required to appear before a Magistrate to show eause why the telephone should not be discontimied. Anotlier step toWards the elimination of illegal gambling tvas the curtailing of the publicitv which was at present given by the >State through its bi'oadcasting service. It was a matter of considerable surprise that no witness liad b-een sent from Ihe Broadcasting Department to give evidence. The extra ordinary evidence given concerning the connection of special telephone lines from the Sportsmen's Association to broadcasting stations, surely ealled for some explanation from that department. Dr. Mazengarb said no attempt had been made to answer the case which the churches -had presonted against the con duct of lotteries in New Zealand with a knowledge of the department of Internal Affairs. It was submitted that the Minister had 110 more authority to grant liceuces for lotteries than he had to grant licences to Chinese to play pakapoo. How eould the State expect the law in regard to betting with bookmakers to be observed when it not nierelv refrained from taking action against those .responsible for the eonducl of those illegal lotteries, he asked. The churches were opposed ,, -to the licensing of bookmakers. ■ They were equally opposed lo granting a monopoly to racing clubs to cater for off-course gambling. It was hard enough for theni in their preaching against sin and tlie vice of gambling, to be met by the argument that the State permits gambling on a racecourse.