PICKINGS FROM "HANSARD."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 182, 2 August 1881, Page 4

PICKINGS FROM "HANSARD."

MEMBERS IN A MOSALISING MOOD

The foiloi-vine are extracts from the f sport of the debate on " The Gaming and. Lotteries Bill " :•—

OBJECTIONABLE LITERATURE. Mr Dick believed that at race meetings in Dtinedin bnd. in other parts of the colony practices were indulged in wbich required, ct aU events, supervision and control. He confessed be did Tsot know much about it, so far as -Jhe (raminoj was concerned. He COOld only epesk from what he saw; arid in Ibe City of Dunedin, which was, perhaps, specially moral in this respect, he hsd noticed that st the approach of the racing season there were to be seen men, who bad very much the appearance of vultures, standing at certain public hojiae doors and looking out for prey. He thought they went very generally by the name of " bookmakers," and honorable gentlemen knew what was the character of the books tbey made. They were about the worst literature tbat could be introduced into the country. SPECULATIVE TOUNG SCAMPS.

Mr BASTING3 had been frequently told ihat the evil of intemperance was what tbey had to provide against, but he was inclined to think that the tendency to gambling which impregnated the whole of the youth of the colony was what they h«d to fear. He h&d watched the .habits of tbe colonial youth, and so far as his experience went— and he might claim to- have some experience, seeing that be had brought up a large family— he thought the youth of N*w Zealand were noi disposed towards" intemperance, but he regretted fo say there w*s a strong

desire on the part of tbe yoath of the

country to indulge in fcamblinjr, and ' that desire was rainiitered lo by every kind of enchantment. THE WHOLE HOG OE NONE. . Sra rW. Fox said that in socb toßMere as these he waa eo friend of any half-measaree. Compromise had become tbe great poHiicai disease of *. the day L : you could never get a measure : XsarrJed through to its logical conclusion, owing to the intervention of ■' tbis* cry for comprbmist*. There Iwbb -always', sn attempt at ; eo.-ri promise;; at . apiitting up yonr Bill nntil it had no practical value whatever. How, very frequently, wbb that seen to be tbe case in connection with otber political measures! He waa therefore glad to see tbat this T3ill dealt with tbe question of gambling in a thoroughly trecchant style, for any legislation tbat waa not thorough •would: simply be flo much miik-and-vratpr — a perfectly useless addition to tbo .Statute Bonk of the colony.

A STRANGS MACHINE. .Fib W. Fox said there was. a point about the Bill which he confessed he "did not approve o*, and that was tbe legalization of a tempiation in the shape of a-macbine -which weut by the Btraisoe and, to'him, inexplicable DGme of "the totalizator." Whence the word waa derived, and what was its taeenin?, he had never been able to obtain any informaiioD. Is seemed to him a great mistake, when tbey were aUernplitg lo discourage lhe vice of gambling: and were sinking at the very rijo.i /acd fcandation of thoeo temptations which induced it, that they should

leav b little sapling like this totaiizator

standing, -which soma day would probably be found to have growr into b > Alarge tree under the shadow of which vice flourished. The inclusion of the 48th elaure in the Bill reminded hins * of ihe very peculiar idea of tbe Ch&irx rta&tt of the Colonial Industries Com- . : mission, that by inducing people td ba fond of light wines you would prevect ihem drinking ardent spiritg. Yob • .would never exterminate the' race of cats by encouraging tbe breeding of little kittens. It was absurd. A -'Ix. L- AL *W.ORP FOB Otfa BOYS. a — Mr. HuESTHOuaB, having- had a Jong experience of the celoeies, snd a long acquaintance with tbe youth of the colony, could esy without any jhesitaUon whatever thst the youth of tbe ecnn'ry wero not nearly so proce to gembiicg and other vices as were these people Who bad been imported to New Zealand. He had lived nearly forty years in the colonies, and he jnaintoined that there was amongst • a ;the J npper classes of the people who bad come to the colonies not only inore "* V|rgmbling but aleo more dricking than there was among the youth of the colony. Ho bed * lived, among; the : -.-. . ypotb of Ibe colony, and was»probd bf ! them, as he ought to be, and be did not like to hear ut j ost aspersions cast upoc „ tbem, by men who had come toj the '■ colony* with the idtaof bettering them- '"': (Wlve-Y '.. .A L ..' ''- .V T /-THE LIBERTY OF THE. SUBJECT* j A' LMfi Wakefield said tbat hi3; exX perience .was very much against the tendency of recent legislation, w!hicb '^'ieemed to aim at restricting the liberties j ''L.6f ; lhe people in every possible way. ,' L The\fime seemed to be n*^t far distant '. : >;4»Lhl3fl the people oi NewZeal&nd Would j-jfee un_b)e.toL amuse themselves at ait

'-•^without fi-litng' under some legal r ;pen9lty. When the honorable member '''"fprpohedin'Cfty (Mr Stewart) <irew attention to . the absence of-,, any Ipjro . Vision Effecting juvenile entertainments, be did not quite understand bioi at f rst ; be thought be meant, perhaps playing 6t mi-rblee, or some juvenile emertainmenia. of that sort, aDd be „;, himself was eurprised tbat there were so provisions restricting these juvenile

Xi ieptertaicments. He believed thsitime \ would come when no little boy would be oble to play at a game of marble?, tip-cat, or hop-scotch without tbe leave of the Colonial Secretary. THE TEETOTALIZATOEr • Mb Waxefield suid that the honorable member for Rangitikei referred to aaJDclrument the nsme cf which ho Was enable to trace to suy derivation — — namely the toializatcr. Wbst'wes Ibe derivation of. teetotaller ? he should like to know. So far &b heknew they were both derived from, lhe same rooj -—in fact tbis icstrument might be tailed the teetctelizator. Thsy wert hot h odd words, and he did not Know what either of them meon£ exactly* T ', r Y WABSI ON TIIE BOOKJiAKEBS. j V ': believed tbe total- '<■ izttto&hfid: doi.e good in New, Zealand. Jl certain^'' IW f ob^long way toXM& AX-XX' " "** yy: .A s

wards putting do v?o bookmakers, and he was of opinion that these bookmakers were the greatest nuisance and the greatest public scaudal in the country. People could not travel any. where where racing was going on without being pestered by a lot of men who to all appearance had no right to be outside the walla of a gaol. PIOUS SWINDLES. Mr Speight suggested the suppression of what several honorable members had already hinted at aa ecclesiastical swindles, for he could call tbem nothing elee. Keverend gentlemen who on Sunday taught them the principles theyo ught to follow, were to be found on Monday or Tuesday leading the unfortunate members of their flock into most dangerous palhs. Any one who was rash enough to visit these bazaars, which were got up <o raise funds for the erection of churches, clergymen's dwellings, end things of that sort, would agree that they were as much an inceuiive Jo gambling as anythiDg that was to b? found in the raciogfield. He thought tbe evil was worse in tbis form, because they looked -for better things in such places j and, if the honorable gentlemen would Iry to crush out that spirit in high quarters, the low quarters would become so disreputable that gambling would cease to exist there. They gape it a respectability by means of church bazaars, aod he failed to see with what consistency ihey punished tha blackleg on the tnrf. A SAMPLE TOUNG MAN. Mb. Dick was glad io learn from the honorable member for Motueka that there was so little of the gambling spirit amongst the young men of the colony. The honorable gentleman was I ao doubt, a sample joung nun. IHe ha^ told them tbem that he bad never invested a shilling even in the totalizator. He (Mr Dick) hoped that the great body of the young men of the Olony were as free from the prevalent vice as tbe honorable gentlemaD, but Le felt quite sure that, if the honorable gentleman went into some of the large toivDß where gambling was carried 00, he would find evidence that the young men of the colony were not so free from the vice as he Euppostd, nor did he deny that the old men shared in the gambling ipirit. THE DIOBAMA DENOUNCED. ; ' . ; " -Mb Dick eait? "that '* Mr Wsk?- --' field seemed to thick the police had. no ri^ht io interfere with the Diorama of the American war. So far as bis koowledge went, it was not the dtorima (hat paople went to see after a day or two, but just to speculate upon tho possibility ot drawing something by means of the tickets that were issued. There was a regular system of gambling in connection with it. In Dunedin the spirit of gambling rose to a great heiebt ia regard to it. The newspapers took l constaat notica of it, and he thought the City Council tock notice oi ii also. Tiie police h*d a great deal to do in the raster of taking notice of it. Lawsuits arose out of what took place. One man borrowed five shillings from a neighbor aud bought a ticket witb ir. He succeeded in gettiog the best prize, consisting of a suite of furniture, and then there was a lawsuit aa to whom the furniture belonged — to the man. who leot the money or* the one who borrowed it, This dio* ; rtieaa bjioinesa created quite a useless and icjuriouß stirj and he thought it wss one ot those cas-s in whioh it was right to interfere. It wai' not. a fair way of showing the American war "to is6.ue .tickets and draw peop.'e into gambling for prizes.