Gambling in Christchurch.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 241, 23 June 1874, Page 3

Gambling in Christchurch.

Another foul and brutal murder, in which the perpetrator of the deed will escape punishment till the day of judgment, in company with his abettors, both direct and indirect! Some few years ago a good woman contracts a marriage which is generally looked upon as an auspicious event. The husband reaches a comparative independence, and everything in life is progressing satisfactorily. But there are certain houses in this admirably-conducted city in which gambling of the lowest order goes on all night long and frequently till daylight on Sunday mornings. The proprietors of these houses are the direct abettors, the authorities the indirect. Our hero thinks tit to patronise one of these houses for one night only, then for two nights only, and so on. For some most unaccountable reason the woman endeavours to persuade her husband that it would be perhaps preferable to all parties concerned if he stopped at home. Not he, indeed ; he is patriotically assisting to maintain the public revenue by way of public-house licenses and custom duties. After a time this pattern man thinks fit to remind his wife that he is master by a severe blow in the mouth. Further recrimination ensues, the blows become more frequent, until one given at a most critical period answers the purpose admirably, and the victim is lying a corpse ; the perpetrator of the murder, the abettors direct and indirect, looking calmly on, and thinking, “ Really, how very funny ! Who would have thought it!” I may add that lam carefully watching seven or eight more interesting cases, in which the poor wives are looking more wan and haggard every day, the children are badly clothed and poorly fed, and the husbands are getting further and further enclosed in the meshes of these moral vampires, under the most complete cognizance of the police authorities. As they drop off one by one, succumbing to the fearfully unequal odds in their terrible battle of life, I will make your readers fully acquainted with the particulars. —Daily Times Correspondent,