THE GAMBLING SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 9, 11 January 1881, Page 4

THE GAMBLING SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

It seems a pity that the House, last session, abandoned the Gambling and Lotteries Bill. In. the present state of general depression, when very many people are at a loss to conceive how to make both ends meet, it is astonishing the amount of gambling that goes on. People who have not apparently the means to pay their butchers and bakers —let alone their printers I — are found on all occasions ready to "plank down" on aoKsalled consultations, sweeps and so forth. We should have thought that Parliament last time it met and when the Bill in question was before it, would have disposed of it in no time, considering the notorious ill effect and mischievous propensities of this gambling mania have upon the prosperity of the people of the colony. A wholesome orange or apple cannot be sold to a thirsty wayfarer on a Sunday, in a colony too which does not recognise by law any special state religion, and yet no legislation cau be brought to bear upon such'a social demoralising sore as the one in question. All the year round, there are advertised, in all the papers in the colony, " consultations " and so-called " art-unions," (one of the latter in Dunedin was actually for the good will of an eating-house as chief prize.) At the same instant there was, in the Middle Island alone during the present year no less a sum than £95,000, in round numbers advertised to be "gambled for." Talk of incentive to idleness, dissipation and social misery after that ! Aud with so small a population too. Public morality, we fear, is at a low ebb in the colony at present and it fortunately shows no sign of prompt recovery. Why, then, did not the Legislature interfere.