Customs Man Wins £12,000 In Lottery

Press, Volume C, Issue 29701, 20 December 1961, Page 7

Customs Man Wins £12,000 In Lottery

(New Zealand Preet Association)

AUCKLAND, Dec. 19. An Auckland Customs boarding inspector. Mr Clement Victor O’Connor, discovered at 6 o’clock this morning that he was “Taj” of Heme Bay, who yesterday won £12.000 in the first Golden Kiwi Lottery. The winning ticket was by a clerk in Mr O'Connor’s office, who had the ticket immediately preceding the winning number. Mr O’Connor learnt of his

windfall as he changed in bis Queen's wharf office today before going out to board the WaaganeMa. A staff member remarked that he must have been “pretty close” because other tickets held in the office were “knocking around” the winning number. Mr O'Comxh- casually took the ticket out. He had already told bis wife he thought they had missed, but he found he had the winning number, 154822. Mr O'Connor said: “What a surprise. I rang Hie wife immediately and she couldn't believe it” The clerk, who bought the ticket, Mr Charles Edward Grey, was a little disappointed today, but was one of the first to congratulate Mr O’Connor. “I already had a ticket and was going over to buy my nephew one. He’ll be having his first birthday soon,” said Mr Grey. “To think his ticket missed first prize by only one. What a birthday present that would have been.” Mr O’Connor, who plans “to keep working to keep living,” used the non-de-piume “Tai,” but apparently this was misread when drawn. “My wife was away in New Caledonia and was due back that day.” said Mr O'Connor. “But she was delayed and on the spur of the moment I told Mr Grey to call it “Tai,” the name of the airline from that country.” Mr O’Connor has been more then 40 years in the Customs Department and has a grown-up family. He has no plans to spend the £12.000 and does not intend retiring for some time. “I’ve seen too many people lose their health once they stopped work,” he said. Second Drawing It was announced in Wellington today that the No. 2 Golden Kiwi £30,000 lottery will be drawn at Wellington at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday. The organiser, Mr N. McArthur, said today that “teething trouble” in a new machine used for arranging the lottery prizes in numerical order delayed publication of the results of minor prizes in the first lottery yesterday. He said there was no question of there being any errors in the prize list “In fact, the whole thing went hike a charm,” he said “It really couldn’t have gone better. We have just had this new machine installed, but because of teething troubles it wasn’t selecting properly.” Canterbury £5 prize-win-

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