I beg to call your attention to the 15 Opinions expressed by the Lieutenant Governor, whose long residence and position in the Colony, and the circumstance of his having discharged important functions in several departments, must give authority to his views.
I submitted the question to the late Acting Attorney General, and enclose a copy of his letter recommending that gambling houses be licensed by Law.
As regards China, the universality of the habit of gambling, notwithstanding severe interdictions and menaced punishment, is a matter of notoriety. It pervades every order of society, from the highest to the lowest,- gamblers and gambling establishments are seen in every street, - sometimes interference and the severe penalties of the law are enforced, - but the chronic disease is not in the slightest degree mitigated. It stands in the same Category as Opium smoking, and defies all prohibitory legislation. As for what I have been able to gather the opinions of sensible Chinese, they would greatly prefer the legalization and control of the habit, to the general demoralization which is the consequence of the impotence, or rather the confederation of the Police.
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