Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1883.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1272, 10 February 1883, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Evening. GISBORNE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1883.

The Government makes laws and the Government breaks them. By a special clause in the Waste Lands Act they are permitted to dispose of land by lottery, and their agents in the several towns of New Zealand have on occasions to assume the position of croupiers at a Government gambling table. The position is no doubt a dignified one, but we scarcely think that Mr Featon and his brother officers are proud of their elevation. That the drawing was fair, square, and aboveboard there cannot be the slightest doubt, although there are, of course, many who will cavil and make nasty insinuations merely because they were unlucky, and failed to draw a prize. The intention we have in view is not to review the duties of Civil Servants, but more particularly to draw attention to that wonderful production, “The Gaming and Lotteries Act." The object, if we remember rightly, was stated to be the suppression of a growing spirit of gambling, said to exist in the Colony. That the spirit of gambling did and does exist there can be no manner of doubt, but the same inclination has existed through all time, and will continue to exist. Boys from the time they can handle a taw with which to play marbles, are essentially gamblers, and remain so throughout life. It is innate, and even clergymen who are supposed to take “ neither scrip nor purse,” according to the Scriptures, object strongly if their parse is not well filled, and in fact the sharebrokers in Auckland at the outbreak of the Thames goldfields, found them to be profitable patrons when scrip had to be disposed of. To prevent gambling is a work which no Government in the world can undertake with success, and in America the census shows that men, in despite ofth all legislation, put down their occupation as “ gambler.” We are one and all gamblers, and if the members of the Government of New Zealand live to find that they have succeeded in suppressing the inclination so generally possessed, they will exist until the Millenium. It is wrong, according to the doctrine laid down, for people to throwdice, play cards,or go into sweeps on a race course for money, but according to Government ruling, it is not wrong for the State to encourage gambling. For church committees when getting up a bazaar, or for any person getting up an art union, any amount of red tapeism has to be gone through, dates of drawing fixed, and half a dozen other things to be arranged, but now let us look at the reverse side. We have stated that the Government encouraged the spirit of gambling, and we reassert it. On Thursday last at the Land Office there stood Mr. Featon like & spieler on a race-course, whirling round a lottery box, and an eager crowd watching every hand that was put in in order to discover whether it was a prize or blank which was drawn. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and the public are not likely to obey a law which the administrators of it themselves cast aside, but do so by “ Act of Parliament.”