HARBOUR BOARD AND GAMBLING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 8, 4 October 1907, Page 3

HARBOUR BOARD AND GAMBLING.

Sir, —You publish Air. Kennedy Macdonald's defence of tho Harbour Board. It is interesting to see tho vigour of. his wrath against-gambling. His insistence on its vicionsness will reach an audience that 1 cannot pietend to command. One. finds unexpected men preaching morals to the community at times. Air. Macdonald is hot on me for an inaccuracy. The inaccuracy oxisted in Mr. Macdonakl's imagination alone. The Dominion reporter, whom I have since questioned on the matter, is clear that I gave no impression of a formal. deputation waiting on the Board. I am certain that I made no such affirmation. My reference was to men from the wharf labourers, who interviewed both the secretary and the chairman anont the evil condition of things prevailing- in the shelter. Why, sir, if Jtfr. It'ac-dona-Id bad reflected he might have been certain that nc formal deputation to tho Board could have been intended. Why, sir, for wharf men to appear against their own comrades in this matter could not be expected. Tho sort of vengeance the exasperated gamblers take is not nice to contemplate. I did assert, and do assert, that wharf labourers approached both tho secretary and chairman of tho Board complaining of tho, open v;olationof the law in the' Rest, and they received cavalier treatment,-that is to say, they wero given to understand that nothing could be done, and that the protest was a nuisance. if Mr. Kennedy Macdonald denies this, I can produce the man who interviewed him last in this connection. But I submit, sir, that the charge of cavalier treatment is completely bqrno out both by. the secretary's report and by Mr. Macdonald's speech. They both talk wearily of the impossibility of suppressing gambling on the Board premises. Instead of regarding the laxity of the custodian ; in times past as blameablo, and the revelations made by the evening paper as reflecting in any way on thcßoard, all that the authorities have done is to stop one glaring game, which used to be played almost continuously, alid to issue general threats, softened by the confession that they cannot expect to suppress tho scandal. They have arranged for tho occasional visit of policoriien in uniform, not a very useful' proceodure, may I suggest. But what wrecks'the whole defence made by the Board is tho tacit assumption of tho impossibility of really doing v anything. The police seem to doubt, according to the secretary's statement, whether tho affair is theirs, and. the Board seem to think themselves impotent. ■ , . lint if this thing cannot bo stopped, if decent men are to bo forced into association with gambling; if the wives of all the men, and the community at laifjo, are to suffer through the cultivation of tho gambling bacillus in Governinent Buildings, then I submit that gambling has taken charge of this community. But things are not so. It wants but a firm hand and a real supervision of the room.) for the room to bo as clean as' tho public desire, and as really interesting and bright as the men can desire it to be. —I am, etc., : . J. J. NORTH. . Wellington, October 3 THE McCULLOUOH CASE. Sir, —Regarding the above case, about which tho j'rumier is so omph'a-" tic that tho Executive must see the regulation prohibiting civil servants to take part in. Igcrl and general politics, or to - act on public bodies, is strictly carried out, independent of whether their attitude ho hostile or favourable, I should like to ask why a certain civil servant was allowed to hold th<f office of Mayor, and also why the same person is permitted to hold a position on an Education Boards—which . surely is a public body—at tho present time. Sir, I think if the question wore answered honestly the reason given would be that he is of the "right colour."—l am, etc., < . '. '• "WHAT'S SAUCE FOR" THE ' GOOSE, , ETC." SCANDALOUS. Sir,—The Mahono arrived: from Sydney this morning at nine o'clock, but the first letters wore only placed in the Post Office private, boxes at threo o'clock, and at tho present time of writing, 4.30, the sorting is not yet completed. . As a' commercial community wo are indeed, long suffering and it is astonishing that so important a department as the .Post Office should be conducted with such scandalous parsimony that it is not provided with sufficient hands to sort urgent mails under a delay of seven hours. If the Government cannot do better than this it is high time tho'y farmed the department out 'to some private firm who would at least have some sense of its responsibility. —I am, etc., HENRY-WRIGHT. October 2, 1907. . -