LOTTERY CHANCES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 174, 25 July 1932, Page 8

LOTTERY CHANCES

ILLEGAL ART UNION. TICKETS SOLD IN HAMILTON. NO PERMIT FROM MINISTER. UNEMPLOYED MAN FINED. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. Charges of promoting an illegal art union and being idle and disorderly were preferred against William Winter Browne, aged 52, a single man, in the Police Court to-day. Senior Sergeant Sweeney said accused arrived in Hamilton from Auckland on Thursday, and on Saturday morning he started selling art union tickete at 0d each, and exhibited several articles to be disposed of by lottery. When arrested he frankly admitted he had been earning a livelihood in this manner for some months. Accused had 2000 tickets printed in Auckland, and on the tickets it was stated that the proceed* of the art union were for returned soldiers. Sergeant 51. J. Angland testified that accused admitted raffling cushions, table centres, and lamp-shades, made by a Hamilton woman. He admitted'that he had no license from the Minister to conduct an art union. Constable Watts produced a bundle of tickets, 45 of which were sold in Hamilton on Saturday, and a box of marbles used in connection with the raffles. Counsel for the defence pleaded that accused could not be classed as a vagabond. He was a victim of circumstances and had constant work as a film operator before the depression. His custom was to solicit orders for articlee before suggesting the purchase of a ticket. He was unfit for relief works, and was attempting to secure enough money for a necessary operation. Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., dismissed the vagrancy charge. He said the second charge was a serious one, and an offender was liable to a fine of £200, or six months' imprisonment. He fined Browne £10.