LOTTERY CHARGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 8

LOTTERY CHARGE

DICTIONARY WORDS. INFORMATION DISMISSED. "TANGLED LETTERS" CONTEST. In a judgment given to-day, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., dismissed the information against Archibald Evans Whiteford, charged -recently in the Police Court with establishing a lottery known as the "Tangled Letters Competition," or commencing a lottery whereby prizes were offered for a correct solution by being competed for by mode of chance. Mr. L. P. Leary, instructed by Mr. E. L. Thwaites, appeared for defendant. In reviewing the evidence given at the hearing on December 12, Mr. Hunt remarked that competitors were told in the circular that all the words and clues were taken from a specific dictionary. "They might have been told that without that particular dictionary they could not possibly succeed," said the magistrate. "There is only one ease where the words in the clue are used for another appropriate word, that is No. 13. The two words are 'bygamy' and 'digamy,' the clue ('a second marriage') being given to both words. Were there more instances than this one, I should have authority for saying there was an element of chance in the competition, and the defendant would have been convicted. "At the hearing I was told that there were 22,000 competitors at a shilling each, and that 75 sent in the correct solution and received for this infinite trouble 25/ each. Before I can convict, I must be satisfied that the prizes were competed for entirely by chance. -By the use of the clue words and with great patience, industry, and the aid of this particular dictionary, the puzzles can be solved and the correct word can be determined. The information is dismissed."