The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1892. Gambling

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 153, 23 June 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1892. Gambling

• The attention of the people generally ; is just now being directed to the vice of gambling. Whether this is caused by an excessive desire to stamp out an admittedly existing evil, or from the absence of other more interesting 1 subjects, we are not prepared to say. We have a suspicion, however, that among 1 other xefoTma to be made, during the session of Parliament which commenced it sittings to-day, will be the abolishment of the totalisator. While we do not approve of gambling per se yet we hold that it is inherent in the human mind. It can- \ not be totally eradicated ; but it may be regulated. The proper way to do I that is by taxation and that mode is : already in force in New Zealand as regards the machine. From personal t observation we haveformed the opinion 1 that the present tax on the money 1 passed through the machine has had the effect of lessening the pleasureable excitement derived from the risk, and from that it may be assumed that > kind of gambling has been robbed of a slight portion of its charms. Very " many of our readers will remember that a few nionthe ago a swind'er was punished in a another colony for committing a fraud on the public in connection with the most popular aud honorable promoter of consultations in the colonies, also that an official in one of the Post Offices was incarcerated for annexing letters addressed to the same person. Well, these two crimes have actually been the means ' of preventing many young men (and J old one's too for that matter) from \ sending their money for investment in this sinful way, out of the colony, j so that out of evil good has come, in a • certain degree. It is said by men ( "who have a knowledge of these i things" that if consultations were pc - I mitted in New Zealand, upwards of £200,000 a year would be retained in | the colony which now goes out of it, i and we quite believe that their | opinion is based on a solid foundation | of fact and is therefore entitled to i respect. It must not be lost sight of ! that, as our contemporary the WanI ganui Herald says, among the most vehement opponents of the machine I are the professional gamblers ; the > human birds of prey who are always [ seeking for foolish people imbued with an undue opinion of their own cleverness, and an itch to become rich without labouring for the money they covet. These people, if debarred from investing money on the totalisator, would gamble in some other way and the evil remain unabated, if, indeed, it did not grow. In conclusion, then, we would urge that in order to abolish or diminish gambling, the traffic must be regulated by the law, and in order to meet the consequent expense to the State, that a remunerative tax be collected there from. If this plan were adopted half the charm would be taken from the vice.