"BAD BUSINESS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 230, 29 September 1931, Page 14

"BAD BUSINESS."

ART UNIONS CONDEMNED.

APPEAL TO PARLIAMENT,

GREAT BRITAIN'S EXAMPLE,

The continual promotion of art unions

in New Zealand came in for strong condemnation at the annual meeting, last night of the Auckland Council of Christian Congregations. By unanimous vote it, was decided to draw the attention of the Government to the recent demand of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce for a complete cessation of art unions and to the unanimity of condemnation by authorities in England, and also to request the Government to make a firm stand against granting further facilities for gambling.

The newly-elected president of the council, the Re\S W. Lawson Marsh, said the growth of the art union movement and the sinister suggestion of State lotteries could be viewed only with the gravest concern. "There is no doubt of their popularity," he said, "and we must fight more strongly against them than ever before."

The Cancer Fund Art Union, said Mr. Marsh, was sponsored by an eminent member of the medical profession in each of the four principal centres. So worthy an object, backed so influentially would be a sufficient excuse for many to turn a blind eye to the method of finance. Had it come to a point when public support for a worthy object could be relied <n no longer unless a bait-, was held out?

The view of the medical profession in England was in direct contrast to that of the New Zealand authority, which governed the art union. The British Medical Council and the British Hospital Association had roundly■ denounced and repudiated art union methods, believing that they were essentially bad business. Moreover, the House of Commons , had reaffirmed Its former decision to prohibit such wasteful and disastrous mean's of financing medical work. Such testimony as that could be ignored only by those who were blind to every consideration but that of "raising the wind." It was the universal experience that regular sources of income were depleted and that immediate gain was offset by a permanent reduction in the number of voluntary subscribers. Surely the Cancer Fund was worth supporting for its own sake, without appealing to the despicable motive of making something for oneself.