Lotteries

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 3

Lotteries

Sir, —A rose (so we are told) would by any other name be as sweet Why is it that we and our Government continue to perpetrate the fiction that there is no national lottery here in New Zealand? Everyone over the age of six (or even younger) knows full well that our so-called monthly art union is a lottery and no subterfuge on the part of ’he powers that be can disguise the fact. One of the facts of the matter is that gambling on a large scale goes on here and one has to accept it as one of the facts of life, whether or not one approves. An ever-increasing number of what I may term, in uncharitable fashion, “wretched little raffles,” seem to be “milking” the public of their small silver. In view of our passion for State control of every phase of existence, it is simply astounding that we are so squeamish as to baulk at the national lottery with a controlled number of tickets in each draw.— Yours, etc., W.H.T. December 30, 1960.