WEST COAST LOTTERY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26451, 19 June 1951, Page 5

WEST COAST LOTTERY

ORGANISER FINED £2O POLICE TAKE MONEY AND SLIPS (New Zealand Press Association) GREYMOUTH,. June 18. The organiser of “Pix,” the weekly half-crown lottery conducted on the West Coast on race meetings in various parts of New Zealand, Thomas Frederick Scott, aged 28, a bushman, of Gladstone, was arrested on Saturday while collecting entries. He was convicted and fined £2O after pleading guilty at Greymouth this morning to a charge of conducting a lottery. The defendant, when arrested, had collected £35 7s and had 321 slips in his possession. The police had kept the defendant under observation and saw him make brief visits to various Greymouth hotels, said Senior Sergeant R. C. McRobie. Scott travelled in a van and. took a week-end travelling bag with him on his visits to hotels. After being under observation for an hour he went to the railway station and there the police saw him receive a package of tickets and money from a rail-car driver. Scott had admitted that he had been conducting the lottery each week since December, Senior Sergeant Mcßobie said. The defendant had just taken over the running of “Pix,” which had been running in Greymouth for a couple of years, said Mr C. R. McGinley, counsel for the defence, in asking the Court not to impose a heavy fine. Mr McGinley said that the lottery was carried on only at the wish of the people who patronised it. “You do not suggest that it should be encouraged?” asked Mr M. J. Fogarty, J.P., who, with Mr J. H. North, ‘J.P., was on the bench. It really appeared to be a form of entertainment with some people, he said. “These documents make interesting reading," Mr Fogarty added, referring to the slips in front of him. “They certainly include some familiar names around town,” said the Senior Sergeant. Application Rejected The Bench rejected an application for the return of the money seized by the police. Senior Sergeant Mcßobie saia that the police were not opposed to the return of the money but had no power. The money was not forfeit to the Crown. “It belongs to the betting public, not the defendant and if the contributors want it they can call at the Police Station.”

Mr McGinley said it was not right that the police should hold the money. It was certain that the people would not try to recover their half-crown investments.