THE GAMING PROPOSALS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 974, 15 November 1910, Page 5

THE GAMING PROPOSALS.

Hon Q T p; ye ? terd »y afternoon saw the Pt the; clause in reference to' tho prein. issuing totalisator permits to ■ one m^ 0 totalisator at on y onei meeWin the year. He would sug-' 1 f vear'f Sh ° uld ■bo f<w sweeps I fil / H n , der ,%ernmcnt control-one on the Auckland 6up, O ne on tho Welling" ton: Cup, onß , on the.New Zealand Cup. -■ ™= ?V n *> Dunlin Cup.- At the IT. entt ' W ? large sums of money were ffiS?"'. °f New Zealand in connection . Rlth.the sweeps and hundreds and thousands of sweeps were being eonducted in New Zealand itself. He would possibly w K>ltt_tnat this was encouraging gambling. Personally lie did not see much Harm in gambling, when it was not car- - ried to excess, The anti-gambling societies had constructed a "dreadful exJ™?!? .°f the gambler just us the Prohibitionists had created a dreadful examplo of tho drunkard. (The Hon. Goo. Jones: "No! Beer.doqs that,") "We do not wont gambling in New Zeasaid Mr. Rigg. If WB did so we would stop horse-racing and there was'no that wo should ,do this. ? sonn R y J lO was wnable to see / where the snort" in horso-racing came "• He •w'owjjto it a poor form of sport. Hβ.did pot hko to a>o a good horse doing his best, handicappod with a heavy weight, and then see him unmercifully flogged and gored with spurs, and driven until his heart was nearly broken. Was this'sport? ho asked. He. thought' it could be better described as cruelty to -... animals. There was one thing that could 1 b ?, s s id )t favour of horse-raqing. It pro2 ded ., a sjrfety. ™We necessary in n country, like this.. If it were s not. for hor feracmg the criminal class would Vβ in-Ul-eased enormously. The peonle who were too dishonest to work lived on this game. They followed it all over the country, and when times were- slack they went to gaol for a period. We would have more cases of garrotting, more burglqries, and ■crimes of this description • than many people imagined if we had no hoTseracing. Ha had noticed an interference by a suction of the clergy in practical .. politics. They sought to make use of the State to put a stop. to,-, every thing they regarded in the nature of a vice, and he thought they were making a great. , mistake. Gambling was an innocent amusement with a largo number of people, and when this section of the people found ministers of religion endeavouring ■to .deprive them of this innocent omuse- ■ ment they would, sooner or later, revolt

against this attempt to revive Puritanism nnd resent it. He submitted that we, as a common-sense people, should deal with a common-sense subjeot in a common-sense mariner. Wβ should endeavour to regulate gambling as far as it was possible for tho State to do eo in the interests of the people, and not attempt to suppress it by Act of Parliament: The debate was adjourned nt 5

p.m., on the motion of the Hon. Sir George M'Lcan.