TIN HARE RACING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3711, 1 November 1927, Page 2

TIN HARE RACING.

CONDEMNED BY MINISTERS’ ASSOCIATION. “I think it is quite time that we should protest against leading public men prostituting the moral life of the community in order, through ■gambling, to brink money Into thenown private purses. Such prostitution of public offices is one- of the disgraces of our community. Never have I known this to happen irfc* Auckland before.”, The Rev. E. E. Drake, a Methodist minister, trenchantly attacked, the Mayor of Auckland, Mr Baildon, and the chairman of the Harbour Board, Mr MacKenzie, for their advocacy of tin hare racing at a meetng of the Auckland Ministes’ Association, held yesterday, (says an Auckland exchange). New Zealand in general and Auckland in particular, declared Mr Drake, was on the “verge of an orgy of\"ambling.” The meeting unanimously commended the Council of the Christian Conregations for forwarding letters of protest to the Mayor and Mr MacKenzie, and also urged that

body to prevent by legslation if necessary, the introduction of this sport. All ministers of the Gospel in Auckland were likewise called upon to protest.

As an Association, said Rev. B. L. Fletcher, who introduced the subject of tin hares, they were not against the sport (hear, hear). “But this is a ‘sport’ which cannot in any way foster any noble instinct. Tin hare racing cannot exist without gambling. I defy any man to say that it can.” Mr Fletcher related how quite recently he had witnessed a bookmaker calling upon workmen at a large building now being erected in Queen Street. He afterwards went up to a man on the job, who told him that was the fifteenth bookmaker who had been laying odds there that day. ''l “We know that the bookie in in our midst. !We know that he is carrying on. We realise, too, that it mechanical tin hare racing is permitted in this country the bookmaker will have more patrons than ever,” added the Rev. Mr Fletcher.