HORSE-RACING AND NOLICENSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3035, 4 November 1908, Page 5

HORSE-RACING AND NOLICENSE.

FACTS FOR BUSINESS MEN. Sir, —Being a visitor to your town, I have been very much amused at the controversy that is going on through the columns of the newspapers on the subject of No-Licerse. The letters that are appearing in the interest of No-License are written by a few of the No-License supporters, and contain a lot of statements of crimes,, deaths, miseries, and other events, all attributed to the Drink Traffic. Now, has it ever occurred to these persons that there are other evils of greater magnitude than the terrible Drink Traffic that they always flout before the public, one that I refer to is the curse that this country is suffering from, that is horse-racing. Now, Mr Editor, do you not think that these agitators would not be doing a greater service to this fair country of ours if they used their brains and energies to try and abolish this growing curse. The No-License advocate, by his arguments, viil try and lead the unthinking storekeepers to believe that if there is No-License that he will get his accounts paid. That argument has been blown out by the fact of the increase ot debts sued for in the courts of Ashburton, where their increase,of population was only 65 in five years, and the debt cases showed a greater percentage than under License.

Now, Mr Editor, what I want to point out to the storekeepers is thif, that it would be of some interest to them if they were to analyse their book debts to find out if the percentage of the book debts are through drink or gambling. I would undertake to wager nine bad debts out of ten in their books the reason of their being is through horse-racing, and not drink. The reason I am penning these few lines is owing to a conversation I had with one of your trading retail butchers in this town, during a discussion on the'lNo-License question. He assured me that out of £I,OOO on his books there were not £SO incurred by people that drink, for the reason that business people soon find oat the drunkard, and do not give him credit, but the man that gambles is not found out until he has incurred a considerable amount of debt. Hoping my few lines will be read with interest by business people and others,—l am, etc., D. SPEAT. Queen Street.