Churches and Gambling.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2075, 5 February 1898, Page 2

Churches and Gambling .

The average young New Zealander (says the Hawkes Bay Herald) is not given to drunkenness or the grosser forms of vice and loose living. But it must be admitted that he is a gambler. If he does not carry it so far as his English forefathers, and stake all oh a cock fight, or a horse race, he yet bets more than he can well afford to lose, and sometimes, -alas finds himself in such a scrape that to satisfy what are misnamed debts of “ honor ” he incurs dishonor and wrecks his life. The State cannot be wholly absolved from blame, for while passing laws to suppress gambling in certain forms, it legalises, and to a certain extent makes “ respectable,” the totalisator, - and even draws & revenue from: it, which last year reached £12,079. But if the State is to blame what are we to say of the Churches ? At almost every Synod or gathering of the Churches resolutions are passed denouncing gambling. . But in too many cases their actions do not tally with their professions. Theßoman Catholic Church is generally, considered to be the most given toyaising, money bv. means, of to do it justice, .that Qhureh does not make itself so prominent in denouncing all foihns of gambling. . But the Church of England 'has made itself prominent in that respect, and we are therefore the more surprised at the position of affairs disclosed in a Parliamentary return just received from the Government Printer. It appears that the Church of England and the Church _of Borne exactly tied in the dumber" of applications to hold lotteries, with 29 each. These were,pretty evenly distributed over the colony. The total applications were 61, of which, as stated, the two denominations named figured for 58, the remaining three being applied for by Presbyterians. This is not a creditable state 'of things, and we hopd that public opinion will mainifest itself so strongly against the money for religions or philanthropic purposes by gambling that in affew yeats sucn a return, if asked forrwill be represented by a sheet of blank paper. /■ .V ;