WON £A100,000 in lottery

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28985, 28 August 1959, Page 10

WON £A100,000 in lottery

A syndicate of seven Auckland people—five of them members of the Curry family, of Green Lane —have won £AIOO,OOO in an overseas lottery. The winning ticket was taken under the nom-de-plume of “Funny Money” in the name of Mrs Letitia Curry, of 6 Woodbine avenue, Green Lane. Those sharing in the big prize are her husband, Mr John Curry; a daughter, Miss Jean Curry, a physiotherapist at the Civilian Rehabilitation Centre, Otahuhu; two sons, Mr Peter Curry who is employed at a Penrose rubber factory and Mr James Curry, an engineer; Miss Betty Brown, an occupational therapist at the rehabilitation centre, and Miss Betty Batkin, who also works at the centre. Told of her win yesterday,

Mrs Curry said: “There's plenty I can do with it, I’m sure. I'll probably help the rest of the family. “We were just sitting here one evening and we decided to have 5s each in this £lOO,OOO lottery. I didn’t think we would win, so we used the nom-de-plume ‘Funny Money’.” The winning ticket, No. 180271, was the family’s first ticket in a major lottery. Mrs Curry had previously taken occasional tickets in £lO,OOO lotteries. Mr Curry, senior, was working in the garden when told of his win. He checked the ticket number against a press message—and then went on working in his garden while Mrs Curry sat down to work out how much each member of the syndicate would get. —(P.A.)

Mr and Mrs J. Curry and their son, Mr Jim Curry. A Brisbane message said the syndicate won £AIOO.OOO first prize in the Queensland Statecontrolled lottery the “Golden Casket.” A senior Treasury official in Canberra said the Commonwealth Government would place no restrictions on the transfer of the money and the Taxation Commissioner (Sir Patrick McGovern) said “We don’t tax lottery wins here. As far as we are concerned the syndicate can keep the lot. I don’t know what the position would be when the money gets to New Zealand.” Four books containing 80 tickets were missing when the draw was made. Lottery officials have begun an investigation.