The Daily News FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3. BETTING MONOMANIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8044, 3 February 1906, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3. BETTING MONOMANIA.

P£uplis wlio bet and lose, but who still bet, hoping to " make a rise," five us common in New Zealand as tliey [are elsewhere, tn fact, that noble animal, "the hov.se," occupies the thoughts of colonials to a rather inordinate extent, You find the names of those people who hot figuring prominently in newspaper reports of bankruptcy proceedings. One Auckland person was, a day or two since, referred to by his defending counsel as a monomaniac. Being a betting uionomamc is therefore evidently regarded in some measure as a mitigation of the offence of forgetting to pay one's just debts, even as in countless cases the ordinary evory-day "drunk" pleads intoxication as an excuse for ollence against the law. If people who bet to the detriment of others are monomaniacs, they, of course, 1 ycally, mus 1 ; be restrained and medically treated, like any other lunatic or mental patient. * * * *

All the colonies lire at. the present time using very stieimous means of (Hitting down some kinds of betting, although this colony is not at all agreed that the totalisator shall he abolished. It is the much-harried bookmaker who is getting most of the attention of the authorities, and on no course of any sine in Now Zealand do the rating clubs permit the gentleur.iH with the hag to ply the trade the State itself plies. Which is one of those Gilbeitiaii situations that makes us wonder whether the cry for better and purer morals is an honest cry, or merely a Pecksnillian shriek. The police are full of a great zeal for the suppression of the Chinese player of fan-tan and kindred games, and have on .some celebrate 1 occasions pounced on a " two-up " school with gratifying results. The police, however, know as well as yju do that the cities and big towns of tl e e ilony are teeming with betting shops, that the post and telegraph ollices are made the means of disseminating betting notices, and that the facilities the law is supposed to curtail are almost impossible of curtailment. Also, the numbe.' of monomaniacs grows larger as the facilities are curtailed. Most people admit, te -hnically, that betting is an evil, and most people hit, in some form orothe.-. If one wins, one J s a s.nai't person. Wnen one loses

one is a monomaniac. It is a nice distinction. 4i s # -is SiMi'LTAXEuusLY «ith the publication of tl.e reivs abiut the Auckland betting ba iknipt, tlieco was a similar story told of a WVlingto i bankrupt. Also,simultaneously, too, W'e published the new* relating to the charges heard locally against four bookmakers, who were. Ilue l for betting on a public reserve at Christinas time. Of course, bookmakers almost invariably got the better of the deal in turf transactions, but it remains a moot point whether it is more sinful to bet | openly on a racecourse, and got fined, or bet in an underground shop and go scot-free in nearly every case. As lan evidence that the police do not regard bookmaking in the concrete as a very heinous oß'ence, one has only to glance over the city newspapers to noiice that the said bookmakers advertise tbeir profession openly. Indee 1, one cannot pick tip a theatre programme in a city without seeing the photo of some dlsti ngui.died "racing correspondent," whose whereabouts the police are perfectly cognisant of, and who, indeod, in no more morally liable than the people who run the totalisator.

To got down to bed-rock, there is absolutely no need for the " bookie." As lot:as iio is permitted on the course or in the shop, he will liml plenty of clients who are willing to let the baker's bill go hang in order to hiive a pound to put 011 a " sure thins "-for the bookies, You see, the " bookie" isn't a reproductive worker. The world grows no better because of the labor be does. The most successful of bis class are able, after a tew years' philanthropic work, to buy rows of houses in the cities and to become persons of some consequence. Do you think it is quite fair '( The Slate betting has one advantage over the shop-betting. The totalisator is always on the racecourse, and people who bet on the machine have "sport "—that is, they sec the best of all animals engaged in a sport that is absolutely harmless, except, for the betting element. The question is: Would the very large number of people who patronise racemeetings, do so if they were unable to " have a bit on a horse"? We think not. On the other hand, the man who bets in the shop is not a '"sport" in any sense of the name. He doesn t know 7 a horse from a hedgehog, so far as the capabilities of the animal are concerned, and depends upon previous performances of Uie beast us a guidt* to his investments. The idea of betting in New Plymouth on the chances of a horse running in Auckland, the bettor not. knowing whether the animal is going to drop dead, be " pulled " or '■ stiffens]," is the most absurd of all "spotting " habits. Those "sweeps," both Australian and German, are still more absurd, as the investor doesn't even have to know the horses running. They might as well be bandicoots or kangaroos for all it concerns him.

11 v I,lie way, Sir Joseph Ward isgoing to t.lio Postal Coiilcrenee at liouie almost immediately, and In? is goiii" to move for the withdrawal of facilities for the postage, of lottery circulars emanating from foreign egeuts. The postal authorities are c|i. e unable to put a si i to the intercc nial sweeps, so it re.".iy does not matter whether the German variety is knocked on the bead or no. The Government's desire to put down betting is obvious. For instance, the Wellington Racing Club petitioned the Postmaster-Gun-I envl not to allow a telegraph .station at the Trentb;un course during the re cent summer meeting. Of course, the wire was mostly used for betting purposes, The Government would not

listen to the petition of the Racing ' Club, and the station was erected and the betting wires sunt without hindrance. It is evidently the desire of the better class of racing clubs in Now Zealand to purify, as much us possible, the " sport of kings," But the clubs want help.