WESLEYAN CHURCH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3844, 29 June 1891, Page 3

WESLEYAN CHURCH.

( : > ~ - The TotaUutorVs- J. Dukes vigorous ''■3 "" tfiegambhng evil last night *?>" C , Church, and Btiongly "}:y *? ~ condemned uie totalisator. Speaking on the subject ofgamblinggenerally. - he said "that every sport and pastime, ~"' ''. ' no matter how innocent and heaith.l - giving if itself/ bears the" "mark of -d'- " the beast," andhasbeen grossly, and, f" ~ "' wickedly ipSeVentea from doing a ■S*'-. divine work by re-creating in man, "-', enfeebled by worry, mental •_'" r * and bodily vigour, the low, base, r "-' unworthy idea that the primary end v* ■■" of all sport'is to afford one man an "<i of fleecing another." '- % \ " " Coming to the matter of legalised ;\> '- gambling, Mr Dukes said: "One of 4~ " the first duties of a government is the \*- -grpmotion in every possible way of IB principles and practices of public % -<" * What Government can % , be said to be discharging all its •- " functions, when it? riot only 7 fails to -~~~ make sinnidgJrard and disagreeable, bat facilitates njcommission by legis* ~~ k ' * lative sandtionr Viewing the Governh;_~*l - ~ ment- as the conservator of public '- 1. morals, it does appear nothing less t * * 'than monstrous, that it should so far ; "z its functions as to demean "■ itself by providing the people with a ' " machine for gambling. ' 1. It is glaringly inconsistent for - -' iheJkw'~to~ regard gambling as a

criminal act witness the penal -, ~ statntes passed against it—and yet L provide the people with an instru- /" -ment to practice it. Here sorely is - 1"~ , of inconsiptency, vifc, that fiJ - • vrfufeLthe law regards gambling as a y offence, yet the law itself 'S Jjyita dignified representative on the ■>- z 2 turf becomes the greatest law breaker. - 2. It is grossly inconsistent for the •. ' -law to condemn gambling in one ~-_ . place and permit it in another. And yet oar Government does this, and in -- effect says, gambling is wrong and - , punishable on one side of the fence;, ;', ' pat it is perfectly legitimate en the "<-- '- other. Nay, farther it is very com- ~. IV »- mendable, and to facilitate the art we | secured the patent of a genius— an evil genius—and .now c youbn gamble to your hearts content >-~; l" nnmfcfft so respectably. And so, ->i^_ l — law hunts up the betting man in every public house and street corner, of the Colony, while it comes'down most unmercifully on a - ■irU»,*~ ? _l»tcli of poor downtrodden Celestials V;/J>~ji£they dare to indulge in fan tan, ■" '■i r 'S ir gander (he eyes ofthe law representa- - "£- "'-Uvea gambling on the race caurse, is -,\t:' ; f-jii full Wast, I ask is Shis even-

handed justice to allow it here and to disallow it there ? If gambling is right, practise it everywhere, and by no means restrain it. If it is vicious aod demoralising,practise it nowhere; by all that is sound, and permanent, and good, strangle it everywhere. - Again, not only does the law prescrine the method and place wbere gambling shall be carried on, but it devotes" certain days for the purpose. On racedajsthepenal statutes against gambling are annulled, providing the people will gamble by machinery, and so the law which should be a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well,has been so shame' fully perverted as to sanction the method, provide the means, prescribe the place and specify the time when men shall violate the laws of God and the instincts of humanity. The existence of * this machine practically reduces the gambling laws to a dead letter, for in effect the law says, it is a penal offence for you to gamble when you have no favorable opportunity, but when there is a horse race, and you want to try your luck, the sword of the state shall be sheathed, all hindrances shall be taken out of the way. What a parody is this on our common sense I The folly of a fire brigade playing desperately upon a house when there is no fire in the locality, and then refusing to work when it is actually on fire, ib' nothing compared to it. The absurdity of a sanitary inspector forcing disinfectants upon a perfectly healthy district, and neglecting them when an epidemic is felling on every hand, does not come up to the anomalous action of the law in the matter of gambling. (4). Finally—let me not be misunderstood here, for I have not the slightest sympathy with the various forms of gambling at bazaars —it is a manifest injustice to disallow a raffle or lottery in connection with a bazaar, and yet permit the use of the totalisator on the race course. It is an unwarrantable hardship for the promoters of an art union drawing to have to ask the permission of the Colonial Secretary before they can hold it, and yet the greatest evil by far has legislative sanction." In concluding, the Rev gentleman said it "was highly impolitic and unpardonable for the State to degrade law to the level of the lowest moral strata, instead of endeavoring to raise it to the standard of truth and righteousness. The christian churches of this Colony would never tolerate the taxation of the totahsator —upon which question he would probably speak shortly—but in the name of all that was dearest to us and to posterity, demand once and for all the total and unconditional abolition of the totalisator.