THE BOOKMAKERS AND THE GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 15 July 1910, Page 4

THE BOOKMAKERS AND THE GOVERNMENT.

It is very fortunate for those members who combined to shelve, and thus to kill, Mr. Newman's Bill for the repeal of the bookmaker clauses of the Gaming Act that tho Prime Minister has been wise enough to bring down the resolutions which he intends to submit to the House. Had he not done so, they would have found it difficult to justify themselves, in the eyes of the public for luiving thwarted the first attempt to furnish Parliament with an opportunity to give a straight vote oil the question. Even as matters stand now, they must not be sur : prised to find that their credit is seriously impaired. All that tho public knows is that the House had a clear and unhampered opportunity to remove from the Statute-book an enactment that has been steadily denounced as infamous for nearly three years and that almost everybody save the Ministry and the bookmakers and their friends wish to remove without a moment's delay. When the' offensive clauses were being assailed in the House in 1807 the Prime Minister could find only two things to say in defence of them. In the first place, so he contended, it was necessary to allow -of free competition between the bookmakers and the totalisator; in the second place, so he alleged, and he repeated the assertion on Wednesday night, the Bill of 1907 would not have passed unless it contained a charter for the bookmaker class. Let us consider the second of these points first. Why would not the Bill have been agreed to unless the offensive clauses were .-added? Did anybody save the Ministry -and the bookmakers and their little circle of friends want then, or does anybody save the Ministry and the bookmakers and their friends want now, the conferring of a-privileged status on these men? The Prime Minister must know perfectly well that this assertion of his is sheer nonsense. The attitude of the Government is really so astonishing as to intensify the ver.v unpleasant suspicions of the public as to the real reason for the Ministry's concern for these _ professional gamblers. , 'As-to the suggestion that these ought to be "free competition" between the bookmakers and the totalisator, the Prime Minister might, with equal justice, affirm I,lie principle, not, more ludicrous, that there ought to bo "free competition" between the regulated liquor trade and the honest and hard-working slygrog sellors. Again and. again, on Wednesday night tho Prime Min-. istek . declared that Mr., Newman knew he could not get his Bill through. He gave no reason—no reason in- fact, no reason derived from any principle of constitutional government. He knows, and every sane person ill the community linows, that if the Government had said to its supporters "Let the Bill through," it would have been- read a second time without any prolonged discussion. - The Prime Minister declared that he wished to give the House a straight issue on the bookmaker clauses, and ho ought therefore to have welcomed Mr. Newman's Bill, which provided an issue as straight and clear as could Iw imagined. It is much to the credit of 'Messrs. Luke, Poole, Steward, Russell and Witty _ that .they refused to assist in killing- the Bill. Mr. Russell's reasons for voting with Mr. Newman put in a word the attitude which it was the' duty of every member to take up. He would vote against the adjournment, he said, "because he wanted to record his voto against, tho bookmaker at tho earliest opportunity." Although the resolutions, as submitted by the Prim*; Minister yesterday, seem plain enough, the proceedings .on .Wednesday are warrant for the exercise of vigilance by those members who wish-to give effect to the will of the nation. We should be much relieved if wo could feel quite certain that the motive for'killing Mr. Newman's measure was nothing more serious than a desire to prevent, a member of the ' Opposition from taking a prominent part in wiping from the Statute-book the stain impressed upon it. by the Government in 1907.