GRAND NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKE

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 51, 1 March 1923, Page 5

GRAND NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKE

PROMOTION OF LOTTERIES IN IRELAND. ( ASINOS COMING. IT" mm Our Special Correspondent > LONDON. January N. If it is the unexpected in this weary old world, it is ever so much more what happens in Old Oire land. Who would have thought that the givin" of Dominion status to Southern Ireland would have bestowed on that Free State another boon—the right to convert itself into a land of lotteries and casinos:- And. from informal ion received, this seems to be one of the Free State's new roles. There is. so it is asserted, plenty ot Irish, English, and American capital available, and the profits would be so large that the Free State fjovemment, which has a very difficult financial future before it. will be strongly tempted to sanction a carefully-super-vised sv.-tcm of public gambling. Irish public opinion has little objection to gambling, and as the people who would risk their money would he mamlv English nnd other foreigners, there" would be a flavour of "spoiling the F.gvptians" al-.nt .t. The Roman Catholic Church, which, apart trom politics, is still the strongest torce in Southern Ireland, has certainly no nljection to lotteries, raffles, and -weepstakes I» has conducted them for various good objects for vf-ars. and in spite of the anti gambling 1»'»- '•' Oreat Rrilain. the British P'-' Off„'e has circulated the circular* and ticketin millions If the promoters of the new '•■-■" • <an allot an adequate propr.r-ion •■< the proli.s to V'J n< ; i i' i ' m ai,,ten, , nc , e of, the < hlir.-h's schools or one of its ho- , pital. .here will be no op-.-,; ion rrom , the ( huri h , A big tIO.IWI sweeps, ake is being got. up for the Grand National » h run on M-reh 2:: The V™"*?' % . "«'■"* fJ" r Tced Srrfi! tT'hands of the Lord Mayor of Oublin for 'he benefit of the [hil.lm Cancer. Hospital. The tickets are lo' each, and ; at thaf pr i, c it is calculated that the promoters will make a tremendous pro- j fir if they 'an get their correspondence circulated. What will the British J'.wt nrli.e do" It has _v,wer to refuse to circulate lotter> .r.ular-. and has already ] done so in re-[e,r of Kreh t. and >wi«| But the Oam.-ii Stale luttery nrculars -til! cme through the British post, and it may well he that the G P.O. will desire to avoid an embarrassing controversy with the Irish Free s>ate Government, especially as it ha- a! lowed ln-ii Roman Catholic lotteries to go through the p,o-t for many -.ear-. It is on this point that the •uo-«j or comparative failure of the li-;'r.iin -weepsrake mi;-' rest Ac for i-n-inw and the like. Ireland hasn't vet scrt.led down enough. h'i r "ie'u project. ar» certainly in 'he air pending 'he eominsr of a peaceful Ireland.