EVILS OF GAMBLING.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 June 1920, Page 8

EVILS OF GAMBLING.

; . TWO CAUSES OF CRIME, i ' QBBBF JUSTICE'S COMMENTS. ' » Wellington, June 10. -* 1» .*ntMicing two prisoners to-day Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, re~v merited- on two causes of crime, drink awl gambling. ... Colin McKenrie, with a down other ' jrtiwfe- Mid a record of crime covering in but the period of his war service, was M&teneed on a number of charges of theft, false pretences, forgery and • " uttering, and Ijorse stealing, to one v month's hard labor on each charge, the tctfeg to-be cumulative, and also dedared an habitual criminal. Prisoner's drinking Habrte w.ere the cause of his * crttte. • "", i Ucorge Tracey, a customs elerK, liad pleaded guilty at Napier to a long »erie» of thefts totalling £-1*22 Hs Id. Counsel stated that the downfall of ac eWtd was entirelv due to gambling. He handled £120,000 a year, receiving a , galary of !£230. In sentencing Tracey to seven years reformativeHreatment, the Chief Justice . «aid it was an enormous sura to go in gambling. Of course our people, he add•ed, do not seem to think gambling •wrong, and there ifl encouragement to it. He *id that the revenue from totalizator receipts in Auckland was ',£B3JOQD, and the fame process went on " elsewhere. Nobody seemed to'take any interest in trying to stop gambling. Government departments ought to kno?; triw are gambling amongst its -<.rvants. Rach things were not permitted in England or America; the gamblers go.