STATE LOTTERY SUGGESTED

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24742, 6 December 1945, Page 6

STATE LOTTERY SUGGESTED

FINDING MONEY FOR HOSPITALS

The suggestion that finance for hospital requirements should "be found by « ■S^ ? ,S ta ! e tottery'was made*by Mr D. W. Westenra,. who. presided at the meeting of the Canterbury Progress League's executive last evening. Mr Westenra reported on discussions and visits to proposed sites with hospital officials and representatives of the North Canterbury Hospital Board. It had been impressed on him that quietness was a first essential. Various areas had been visited, and finally Cashmere; and he had been surprised' at the big frontage and area, and he als-. felt that drainage would be satisfactory. Mr Westenra, after an account of his visit to the hospital and Of seeing the Eroblems and inadequacies, said that e called to mind the State lotteries used in some overseas countries. He did not see why there should not be a huge State lottery for the hospitals. He could see. nothing against this course, and believed that the outlook was so dreadful as far as finance was concerned that something of the sort would have to take place. He had read some time ago where the Labour conference itself had advocated State lotteries. New Zealand was only a small country, and he believed that was the easiest and best way of getting the money. Queensland, for instance, had beautiful hospitals because they had raised the necessary money.