THE PULPIT AND HORSE RACING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3037, 21 March 1881, Page 2

THE PULPIT AND HORSE RACING.

[To the Editor op the Daily Telegraph.] Sir, —Although contrary to tbe strictest etiquette to criticise a sermon, may I request you on this occasion to permit me space to say a few words concerning the Rev. Mr Hovell's discourse of list night. The reverend gentleman could not lose the opportunity of the close of a race meeting to refer to bookmakers, professional gamblers, and amateur bettors. He said, in effect, that those who made " books'' could not lose money ; they set aside so much to gamble with, and if it went it did not matter. Not so with the amateur gambler, who was often tempted to lose mere than he could afford, and the downward step once taken might lead to ruin. The reverend gentleman could not have spoken more bitterly if he had had a disastrous time of it himself on the race-course. But it seems to me that it is like shutting the stable door after the horse is stolen to preach a moral after the sin is commmitted. The sermon of last night might have had a good effect if delivered before and not after tbe races. Mr Hovell went on to say that betting did no good ; it did not enrich the country ; it produced nothing. Allow me to differ from such an idea. Do away with betting, do away with all chance of winning money by wagering on the events of a race meeting, and there would very soon be no racing at all. For stakes such as alone can be given in this colony it would not pay to breed or run race horses. I have heard it asserted that it does not even pay to run a horse straight. So it would seem that those who bet, by laying the odds, or by taking them, are the real supporters of tbe turf. It stands to reason that in all gambling transactions somebody must win if another loses, and I do not think the winner is to be congratulated any more than that the loser should be commiserated. Human nature will have to alter very considerably before mankind will cease to love a wager upon an uncertain event. Will it surprise Mr Hovell to learn that from a worldly point of view the Church sanctions and almost sanctifies gambling by her own conduct? Are not churchea built in all directions on the " off chance " of them being paid for by book or by crook ? Is not nearly every church in the colony hopelessly in debt through "over-laying its book"? The gambling man has to meet his liabilities, but as there is no ecclesiastical Tattersalls where a defaulting church can be posted, the most reckless gambling-— for it is nothing less—goes on, upon no other principle than if the church debt is paid well and good, and if it is not then no one will be so wicked as to put a bailiff in the pulpit.—l am, &c, J. G-. Harris. Napier, March, 21, 1881.