TATTERSALL’S TO LEAVE HOBART

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27150, 21 September 1953, Page 9

TATTERSALL’S TO LEAVE HOBART

Agreement On Move To Victoria ,

MELBOURNE, September 19. Tattersall’s lottery will be transferred from Tasmania to Victoria under an agreement reached with the

Victorian Premier (Mr J. Cain) yeaterday. The Government expects to get up to £2,000,000 a year in additional revenue from stamp tax and levy on ticket sales. The announcement of the transfer to Victoria caused a sensation in Hobart, and it is almost certain that the Tasmanian Government will take immediate action to establish a State lottery. It will take steps to retain the name of Tattersall’s. < Mr Cain said that if legislation granting the George Adams Estate trustees an exclusive licence to conduct a lottery for a minimum term of 10 years was passed by Parliament, the first Victorian lottery would be drawn early in the New Year. The Deputy-Leader of the Opposition (Mr A. G. Rylah) said the Liberal Country Party would ask for a referendum on the question. The leader of the Hollway Liberal Party (Mr T. T. HoUway) said his party would support the transfer. Mr Cain said he felt confident the agreement would provide a compromise acceptable to all who had objected to the establishment of a State lottery in Victoria. The extra revenue would be devoted to hospitals and mental institutions. It is known that Tattersall’s would have lost a big part of its business if a State lottery had been started in Victoria. The Tasmanian Premier (Mr R. Cosgrove) accused Mr Cain of being “most discourteous.” “I have had no indication from him, and I had no knowledge that these negotiations were in progress,” he said. “The transfer of Tattersall’s to Victoria will have a most detrimental effect on Tasmania.

“The money we received from Tattersall’s has oeen a tremendous help to the general revenue, which included hospital services.”