Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4280, 21 November 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] Being the extended title of the Wairarapa Daily, with which it is identical MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1892.

second edition

It is said that the bulk of the letters registered in tho Colony go to one address; and that in our Post Offices there is n "damnable iteration" of " Tattersall, oare of G. Adorns, Sydney." Of course, the amount of money despatched annually to this address is a mere conjecture, but the Bum of it probably lies between £50,000 and £IOO,OOO, and we might reasonably estimate it at £75,000, The Government is in a position to ascertain the amount with some certainty, because the Postmaster-General could, without difficulty, obtain a re. turn of the number of letters regis* tered to Tattersall, and it is indisputable that each one is a remittance, Assuming that £75,000 goes out of New Zealand annually for Sydney consultations, the question arises as to how much of it comes back. When any considerable prize reaches the Colony, it usually goes the round of the press, and judging from this standpoint we should say that considerably under £25,000 per annum finds its way baok to us, and that the Colony makes a dead lose of £50,000 a year on ConsultatioDs.

Now, as the Legislature has decided that Consultations are immoral and has absolutely prohibited them in (His Colony, it seems somewhat strange that suoli an enormous Bum should, under the very nose of the authorities j and with their full knowledge, be inn rested year after yearaorosß the water, Two rational courses are open to the Government, one is to make the prohibition effective, the other to withdraw it altogether, What is the Me of a prohibition which is openly evaded to anch an enormous extent 1 To be consistent the Government ought to.be in a position to refuse to pass through the Post Office the hundreds of thousands of registered letters which are' posted to the proprietors of well-known sweeps, If this cannot be done it would be far better to remove all restrictive legislation on consultations, with a view to retaining in the Colony the £75,000 which may hV fairly estimated to be annually despatched to Sydney. If New Zealand dera will insist upon spending this' sum annually on consultations it ought at least .to he retained in the Colony, If on the other hand tho Government and Legislature desire to ; suppress consultations, the work of suppression should be thorough. The Aot now in force may have some virtue in the abstract as affirming a moral principle, but in.practice it js a dead failure. We may perhapß bp somewhat sceptical, in the face of the totalisator license and the totalisator I tax, as to whether the Legislature ib embued with a desire to uphold; morality in matters connected with the turf, but if it be in earnest it ought most certainly to abolish the

totalisator licenses and to stop the despatch of thousands of registered letters by each mail to men like "Tatosall."