South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2460, 5 February 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1881.

We are no admirers of gambling ; but neither do we like the way in which the guardians of the rights and liberties of the people are sometimes employed. When a raid was made on the unstamped weights and measures in this town some time ago, we commented on the immorality of these modern police raids. We pointed out that the process of lulling tradesmen and others to sleep, in order that they might he suddenly pounced upon and victimised, constituted a stretching of the statutes that was anything hut creditable. Superintendent Shearman with Lis subordinates have just been distinguishing themselves at Wellington by putting a stop to games of chance. The games of chance referred to are these little shilling and sixpenny ventures, which of late years have been ingeniously multiplied, and which form one of the great attractions of the racecourse. They den’t include the dice-box, the under-and-over table, or the three card trick, and hence they have usually been tolerated. In principle they are just as fair as the totalisator, which has received the sanction of every enlightened colonial legislature that is not in league with the bookmakers. What has stimulated this sudden display of official zeal on the Wellington course wc do not know, but we think the conduct of those who instructed Superintendent Shearman to suppress these popular amusements is neither consistent nor rational. To tolerate the totalisator and the active bookmaker and yet fo suppress the shilling lottery tables is simply straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. It indicates a sort of Pliarasaical, hypocritical zeal that people who are consistently opposed to gambling in every shape and form must condemn. To pounce on the small fry and allow the big fish to escape is a kind of tyranny that is congenial to New Zealand but still reprehensible. Superintendent Shearman and his assistants of the force, we are satisfied, are merely the instruments, in this instance, of a secret edict. The mendacious author is concealed in the background. If the skulking poltroon could only be dragged from his lair it would probably be found that his aim is not to interfere with gambling so much as

with public recreation, as exemplified by horse-racing. Because he dare not extinguish the racecourse he nibbles at its attractions, and suppresses the small game-of-chanco-men. It is well known that these industrious anglers for stray shillings and pence form one of the greatest features of every course. They induce thousands to patronise the sport with their presence by offering them a mild excitement, in which, even if their means are limited, they can participate. The promoters of horse racing in Neiv Zealand profit directly and indirectly at their hands. To interfere with their games is simply a piece of domineering despotism. If the police are to be used for suppressing all games of chance on the racecourses of the colony, the Eating Clubs will be the chief sufferers, for their attendance will be diminished, and their revenue will suffer. There have been various police raids of late, but this one is the most extraordinary of all. Why, there is hardly a racecourse in the world on which games of chance, so long as they are fair, are not tolerated. The police might just as well be employed to interfere with children playing marbles. Superintendent Shearman and his men, however, are not to be blamed, for they are simply the agents or cat’s paws. We should like to get at the monkey in the back ground. It will bo recollected that during last session of Parliament some very hard things were said about racecourses and racing in general, and that one of the severest denunciators —Sir William Fox—was proved to be an ex-jockey. Having grown too old for the sport, his disposition had evidenty grown soured, and he reviled the pastime of his youth. It is to be feared there is a crafty spirit pervading the Cabinet at present and that this is the secret of the police raids that arc driving Sunday dramdrinking into the shebeen house and the family circle, and robbing the humble patrons of the turf of the harmless diversions to which they have all along been accustomed. If the sneaking moral reformers who are utilising the police for their miserable experiments cannot do anything better than interfere with the “ doodle-em-buck ” men on the race-course, the sooner they are dragged from their recesses and held up to public obliquy the better.