Lottery Proceeds

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29858, 26 June 1962, Page 10

Lottery Proceeds

Reflection has not caused the Government to devise

more satisfactory arrangements for distributing profits from the Golden Kiwi lottery than those originally proposed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Gotz. Indeed, judged by Mr Gotz’s speech in the Address-in-Reply debate, the position is now even less satisfactory. Distribution by a single person has been rightly criticised; and Mr Gotz himself makes decisions on assistance for some projects—he cited athletic fields as an example. But the Cabinet decides such things as grants to art galleries and museums, and grants for medical and scientific research. The reason for the distinction is hard to see. It is harder to see why the Cabinet should have to spare time from its important business to determine allocations of lottery money. Nor was Mr Gotz any more reassuring on the question of how claims for assistance should be

brought forward. Each member of Parliament had access to him, he said, and “he w’anted to encourage “ members to bring their “ claims for assistance to “ him ”, Could anything be more likely to introduce political considerations into the distribution of lottery funds? Could anything be more likely to expose a person controlling these large sums of money to heavy, perhaps intolerable, pressure? Mr Gotz stated his objection to appointing a committee to disburse funds: ’“lt was inescapable “that in some minds they “ would have been the “ wrong people for the “ job ”. Whatever disadvantages there may be in distribution by an independent committee ' under the general supervision of the Minister, they are insignificant beside the very grave objections to having the distribution of such large sums of 'money dependent on the favour of a Minister or the Government. Something better must be devised.