Waiting To Buy A Mammoth

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30715, 2 April 1965, Page 1

Waiting To Buy A Mammoth

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Seath) will recommend that the Cabinet consider authorising more frequent Mammoth Kiwi lotteries.

“In the light of public demand, I will be asking the Government to consider the frequency of Mammoth lotteries,” he said last evening, says the Welling reporter of “The Press.”

“There is obviously such a strong demand that the Government must consider what it should do,” said Mr Seath.

“There is no immediate hurry about it. The lottery which opened—and closed — today was the last of the four for the first full year of the series.”

Mr Seath said the government would have to consider the attitude of the churches, some of which had opposed the introduction of Mammoth lotteries at all. Debate in Parliament last year had shown that both parties were split to some degree on the issue. Mr Seath then said: “The State should not impose restrictions (on lotteries) unless social problems become apparent. If you drive a thing undercover, it thrives the more.

“Many churches have accepted lottery funds and put them to good use and they don’t seem to be any the worse off for it."

Mr Seath said he saw no need for a market survey or similar inquiries before he suggested more big lotteries to the Cabinet. He had no firm view on the frequency with which they should be held. Most sellers of Mammoth Kiwi lottery tickets in Christchurch seemed to be of the opinion yesterday that some form of revision of ticket allocation was needed. For the fourth Mammoth lottery in succession the demand for tickets far exceeded the supply. Sales were extremely brisk early yesterday morning and it was practically impossible to obtain a ticket anywhere in the inner city area within 60 minutes of their being put on sale.

Long queues were waiting at every pavement stand, tobacconists and shops where the tickets were on sale. “Business was hectic to say the least, and the only real difficulty was having to say ‘sorry, sold out,’ to the many latecomers,” said one salesman.

Some tobacconists said that the lottery sales were causing them to lose customers. One vendor in the suburbs was abused for not having saved a ticket for a regular customer.

“We have several thousand customers who pass through this shop, each of whom wants to book a mammoth lottery ticket. Yet we are only given 200 to sell. How can you be fair and please everyone with such a ridiculous set up as that?” asked one tobacconist.

Another salesman suggested the Government ought to do some serious thinking about increasing the number of tickets available, or make the mammoth lottery a monthly affair.

Many shopkeepers reported that bookings were already heavy for tickets in the next mammoth lottery, although the date had not been announced.

Many afternoon callers, seeking tickets and faced with signs of “Sorry, sold out,” complained that the whole situation was silly when items were offered for sale but were unobtainable in so

short a time. “As usual the Government’s got another problem to solve. Yet the answer to this one doesn’t seem hard. Let’s just have these major lotteries regularly rather than infrequently, said one middle-aged man. The photograph above, showing a queue of would-be buyers of tickets, was taken in Cathedral square early yesterday morning.