WAGERING IN NEW ZEALAND

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 188, 13 September 1909, Page 4

WAGERING IN NEW ZEALAND

"Wagering in New Zealand is continuous from week to week, from month to month. It is openly carried on in the highways and byways. Tho law is flagrantly abused. Everyone knows this. Let there be races at Christchurch today, at Auckland to-morrow, or at any obscure hamlet, and the pavements of our cities are infested by bookmakers, their touts and clients. The postal deliveries arc the greater because of the bookmakers' cards and betting lists which aro continually in circulation. The Telegraph Department gets an immense revenue from the same source. Wagering on hors'e races is an obsession with thousands of our citizens. There is positively no restriction upon the exteirt to which they can indulge their passion. We say this is a gross scandal and its steady increase can surely not be anything but , derogatory to civic virtue. Post-prandial eulogiums about bookmakers sitch as were delivered at the Tattcrsali's Club celebration on Monday evening are by the insult they carry to the intelligence a challenge to every citizen who would like to see the democracy purge itself of this vice. There were assurances from a Minister of the Crown that bookmakers arc 'like other men.' If the other men ho -e----ferrcd to arc parasitical, non-productive loafers, then they are. Otherwise they are not. Such being the case, we suggest that it would he verv much more in conformity with the dignity of the office they hold and tho sentiments of the hard-working, clean-living men and women of this country if the two Mh'.sters of the Crown referred to were less solicitous in finding excuses for these gamblers and more intent on deviling means for stemming the evil tide o'f betting which is menacing the men and women of this community."—Wellington Times,