RACING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1522, 19 August 1912, Page 7

RACING IN NEW ZEALAND.

• STATEMENT BY THE BEV. J.,. J. \ NORTH. ■ ■' • • ' ' - Before tho sermon at the Vivian Street! Baptist Church last evening, '.the Rov. J. J. North said:-"l'want to-call your.attention, as pcoplo who wish their country Well, to tho attempt l>eiiig mado to undo tho restrictive legislation of 1910 in regard of horse-racing. VSomo of you may. supposo that this subject is remote froiui the interests of this Houso of Prayer. It is not. Religion is concerned with morality, Whutever.thrcutens or impairs the morality of tho nation is tho concern of the Church. J! saw a home, indirectly connected with this congregation, ruined last week by gambling—the breadwinner, a fugitive, and the wife bowed with enro. i Every facility for gambling spreads tho' min which enters hundreds of New Zealand homes every year. In tho stale na'mo of sport hundreds of innocents aro massacred (morally shaking) every season. To restrict gambling to racecourses to mako it difficult, to fix tho- brand of shamo on its forehead is tho first duly of all who love this land; Since the Act of tho Ward Government hi'lolo,'2(U)U horso races occur in this land every your to' a population of one million. New South Wales has but 2100 to a population of nearly twice as largo as ours (1,750,000). 'Yet an attempt is being actively' mado to enlavgo tho •gambling facilities of the country by adding 30 days, or 210 races, to our alarming total. I am speaking in the namo of 20,001) Bap- ' tists and of somo hundreds of thousands of other people when I say that wo do-' niaiid that tho Government of to-day risk everything to sccuro tho dofeat of this retrogrado proposal. If u Reform Government sacrifices' tho reforms 1 achieved in the past, its namo will bo hated by tho better part ofi.this.nation. This clamour for mare gambling is being fostered by a society whoso false pretences have ocen- • sioiicd.widespread resentment. Tho Snorts -Protection Loaguo pretended that its business' was the defence of cricket, and foothall, and hockey, and very indirectly, horsoraciug, from somo imaginary enemies. It was presently discovered that tho league was a subsidized • off-shoot, cf tho Racing Conference. Its Auckland branch has clamoured for tho restoration of tho book-maker. The wholo lenguo is now demanding, in numerous petitions, moro raco days and the publication of tolalisator dividends in tho daily papers. I hava tho report of tho Wnimntn branch of- , this league.. To it six men camoj, ono left,- presumably because of (ho naturo of tho petition they were asked to, send to Parliament! .another, after a vehement protest against tho false pretences under which the loagifb had been intra- (

duced into tho town,resigned and nlso ■loft. Tho domnnds of this unmasked league, if they aro assented to by Parlinmcnt, will, on tho one-hand, drench thirty fresh districts with gambling;,anil, on Iho other, tlirouph : tlio publication of dividends, will resuscitate hundreds ol bookmakers nnd innlce possible in every .hamlet in this land tottilisator gamhling on ovory one of the 2J50 races which they ask should run in this Dominion every year. I ask your .activo help in this matter. Make your protests heard. If gambling legislation is wanted, it is) wanted in (ho direction of further restrictions. Tho proposition for further facilities is an unutterable anachronism. That citizen or politician is asleep, who is not startled by an investment on tho totalisa'tor of approximately three .million pounds a year, or who is not ashamed that tho entire population.of the largest of our cities should bo contributing at tho rate of lis. per head for every man, woman, and child within it's bounds, for prize money for horse races .in a.' twelvemonth. I repeat that we call on tho Government to exercise nil its' Dowers for tho dofeat of the proposals which, are being urged on tho House."- • '••