The Sun FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1928. THE VICE OF EUCHRE!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 9

The Sun FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1928. THE VICE OF EUCHRE!

IT may be dangerous to mention it, because of tlie risk of depreciating the Dominion’s high credit in the overseas loan market, but it seems that New Zealand, after seventy-live years of innocent pleasure, has at last become debauched with the parlour and the parlous game of euchre. The Law, with all its power and majesty, is seeking relentlessly to stamp out a dreadful vice and compel a foolish people to abandon play with, cards. In the absence of ordinarily serious crime, in the acute need of securing more revenue somehow, the police are raiding progressive euchre tourneys and prosecuting the wicked players. The Justice Department is so keen on prosecirtion that it has been forced, in the highest interests of national morality, to descend so low as to send a detective in the capacity of a patron to a euchre entertainment in Dunedin. So far, although a learned judge with sufficient leisure to rake among old laws and thus discover, by splitting legal straws, that progressive euchre, irrespective of skill, is illegal, less learned magistrates have refused in three notorious cases of breaking the law by playing cards to inflict penalties. It is true that the two magistrates concerned obediently and dutifully conformed to the high judicial interpretation of a section in the Gaming Act, derived bodily from sections in the Betting Act of 1853, and recorded a conviction in each case. That, of course, was the practice of wisdom, but in the exercise of common sense, which is often wiser, they declined to impose a fine. They simply could not find a punishment to fit the crime. Doubtless in their hearts these simple magistrates felt that the judicial discovery of crime in euchre as played for money or money’s worth had garbed the lion of the law in the skin of an ass. One would have imagined that such nonsense as has been thrust into the criminal courts of New Zealand could only have been perpetrated in Dayton, Ohio, or somewhere else in the land where mares’ nests and monkey puzzles are as common as the need of commissions of inquiry in Auckland, but the passion for killing joy that has gripped this country threatens to make our fortunate isles the islands of forensic farce. It has even been necessary for a huge deputation of grave and perturbed citizens of Christchurch to wait upon the Prime Minister and urge him to negotiate a repeal of the law that makes euchre, and probably lots of other games besides, illegal and places it and them in the same category as depravity and debauchery. And Mr. Coates, finding it extraordinarily difficult to keep a straight face, gravely assured the anxious deputation that he would confer with the Attorney-General about it.' But it is easier to send g;unboats to Samoa and deport recalcitrant natives and Europeans from a disturbed territory than it is to restore euchre to its former level of village innocence. If the police want to suppress gambling why not secure the election of a detective to Parliament where, in the card-rooms, he could, in the capacity of a legislator, secure evidence in support of an indictment against law-makers for gambling at cards? The Government should instruct the Justice Department to save the Law from ridicule. GOOD WORK, WELL DONE IN days when so many public or semi-public bodies come under the lash of criticism for the apathy or ineptitude of their administration, it is refreshing to note the good work of the few. Among these may be placed the Auckland Patriotic and War Relief Association, which, for years now, has been quietly rendering splendid service in the interests of ex-soldiers. Since its inception this association has distributed no less than half a million pounds among deserving cases, and though the claims upon it have become less with the passing of time, they are yet considerable, and, as may be imagined, the extent of unemployment in late months has made many demands upon its resources. Happily, a wise management of the association’s funds has enabled it to weather all storms, and it has a balance of £132,655 in hand with which to carry on the good work which has, so far, been so well maintained. Apart from the permanently disabled, there is a considerable number of men who were rendered quite unfit for hard work as the result of their war injuries, and in a period of competition such as this these men find it very difficult to obtain employment and are hard put to it to live with any degree of comfort upon their scanty pensions, particularly when they are married. “In addition to ‘fit’ soldiers out of work,” says the report of the association, “there is also a number of ex-soldiers unemployed who are suffering minor disability, but are able to undertake light work. The war pensions are in most cases insirfficient to support them, and the class of light work which they can undertake does not seem, to be available. The board sympathetically considers such cases and earnestly appeals to the citizens to put any work possible, such as gardening and light cleaning work, in the way of these men.” The partially-disabled, it should be remembered, received their injuries fighting for their country. Such an appeal as that issued by the Patriotic Association should hardly be necessary to the citizens of that country. The public should make immediate response and endeavour in every way possible to aid the splendid work of the association. RAILWAY PERILS WITH tlie exception of one or two bad smashes involving loss of life, and an excessive number of accidents at crossings, the record of the New Zealand railways for safety compares more than favourably with that of most other countries. There have, however, been far too many derailments, and where these have occurred to mixed trains, luck more than any other factor may be. thanked for the escape of passengers. The public mind is not at all at ease over these derailments. It may be excused for imagining that the fate which too often befalls a goods train may easily be that of a passenger train, though the very frequency of the mishaps to the former indicate that it is not the line but the trucks that are at. fault. This being the case, the announcement of Mr. Casey, Divisional Superintendent for Auckland, that the department’s policy is, as far as possible, to eliminate mixed trains, is welcome, and the hope may be expressed that this policy will be completed with all rapidity.