IRISH SWEEPSTAKE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 106, 7 May 1931, Page 11

IRISH SWEEPSTAKE

POVERTY TO WEALTH

DRAWING CEREMONY

PRINCIPAL WINNERS

-[(From "The Post's" Representative.) ' LONDON, 26th March.

No one hitherto favoured by fortune ■seems to be among the principal winners in the Irish sweepstake draw.

.Hero arc the .Jirst six who drew the first .six horses in the bcttiug:—

'Easter Hera.—"Lanofale," 10, Durham road, Aunlield Plain, Co. Durham. "La.uofalc"' is Mr. Robert Berkley, a miner.

Sir Lindsay.—Mrs. A. Morris, Tulati Ilonsc,' Tientsin, China.

Ballasporl.—"Happy," 0, Douglas street, Paisley. Owned by two booking clerks.

Drintyre.—"Sandy," 40, Spring street, Rotherham. "Sandy" is Mr. Alexander Allan, who shares the ticket with Mr. Forbes, manager of a local public house.

Grakle (the winner) .—"Isola," 141b, Battersea Park road, London. "Isola" js .Ml-. Emilio Scala, cafe proprietor in Battersea Park road, London.

Drin—Mr. Ralph Brown, 04, Peebles street/ Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland.

The only New Zealand name figuring in the long list of prize-winners is that of ■ N. S. Hunt, of Huddart-Parker Buildings, Wellington. He is one of the 360 who each gets a cash prize of £1181. When the auditors' report was read at Hie drawing in the Mansion House in .Dublin it showed that the result of the sweepbluUes was as follows:—Total money .subscribed, £1,755,063; prize fund, £l,181,81o; drawer of winning horse, £354,544; drawer of second horse, £177,272; drawer of third horse, £11S,181; eighty-three other horses, starters, and non-starters, each £1281; Three hundred and sixty cash prizes, each £J181; prizes to sellers of winning tickets, £0000; amount payable to hospitals, £438,000. . ~ There was a large crowd in .the Mansion House when the draw took place. Punctually- at 0 a.m., a procession ot hospital nurses carrying the sacks with some 4 000,000 counterfoils entered the Bound Room. These counterfoils were placed in an enormous drum resembling an engine boiler, which was rotated by electricity in order to ensure as perfect a mixing as possible. . The names of all the entries in the race were placed in a crystal cylinder. The whole of the proceedings were supervised by the official auditors. During the insertion of the counterfoils, which occupied three-quarters of an hour, gramophone records were played through a loud speaker. ■ CHARITY FALLS AWAY. The proceedings began with a little speechmaking. Viscount Powerscourt, chairman of the Hospitals Trust, promoters of the sweep, explained how useful was the money those institutions received from the fund in effecting much-needed repairs, and providing up-to-date equipment. He was anxious to clear up one misunderstanding—the charitable public had got the false idea that the hospitals were so rich now that private subscriptions had become unnecessary. This was an entirely erroneous point of view. The money derived from the sweepstakes was being devoted to the checking of decay in the hospitals; it never could endow them permanently, and private subscriptions from the charitable public were as necessary now as ever they were. The Lord Mayor of Dublin also appealed to the public to continue their private subscriptions, and deplored the falling-off in this respect. In front of the stage was a small army of minor officials, including linguists, prepared to wrestle with the most obstinate of languages that might appear on the counterfoils put of the drum; typists with noiseless machines; result recorders and checkers, and a geographical expert. Moreover, just out of sight behind a curtain was a Eoneo staff prepared to roll off lists of results at amazing speed as soon as they were announced. General O'Dufly, head of the Civic Guard, took charge of the draw. He it was who gave the word of command to the nurses, who, working in relays, sat before the port holes of the cylinder and drew out the counterfoils. He took the little slip, stamped it, then did the same with the roll drawn from the glass drum, pinned the two pieces of paper together, and handed them to his two secretaries, who noted the- details. ■ THE MAGICAL ARMS. Then Mr. O'Sheehau read them out to the public, and they were also thrown on the screens. The nurses had been well trained. Before they plunged their bare arms into the big drum they displayed them back and front to the audience, rather in the manner of the magician who desires to convince that he has nothing concealed. The whole proceeding worked smoothly and perfectly. ■ Mr. Robert George Berkley, of Annfield Plain, near Durham, who drew the, favourite, Easter Hero, is a middle-aged master weighman employed at the local colliery, and lives with his sister. He shared his ticket with Mr. Martin Grieyes, a haulage contractor in the district. The .Ballasport ticket, drawn by "Happy, is jointly owned by Mr. James Millar and Mr. Joseph Dalrymple, who live in Douglas street, Paisley. They .are booking clerks at Gihnour Street Station. Mr Millar, who bails from Ayrshire, is married, and Mr. Dalrymple, who belongs to Neilaton, is unmarried and lodges with Mr. and Mrs. Millar. Mr. Hugh 'Forbes and Mr. Alexander Allan, of Rothcrham; are the joint owners of the Drintyre ticket. Both are Scotsmen, though they have been resident m South Yorkshire for many yegrs, Mr. Forbes having been manager ot the Kotlierham branch of the King's Arms, belongin" to Messrs. Duncan Gilrnour and Co., for the past 20 years. He is 54 years ot ;i«C and a. bachelor. Mr. Allan, who has been in the Sheffield district for over 30 years, is married and has four children. "Isola," who has drawn Grakle, is Emilio Scala, of Battersea Park road. He runs a coffee shop with his brother. He came to this country from Rome 30 years ago, and started business here with an icecream barrow. He opened the coffee shop in Battersea road 20 years ago. The ticket is the only one he bought, and is shared with 40 relatives. Mr. Ralph Brown, of Peebles street, Kirkcaldy, who has drawn Drin, is a leather worker, but was paid off on Monday. He is 40 years of age and a native of Scarborough. He had shared the ticket with three others. Mr. Samuel Harvey, a Tulse Hill grocer, is ".Pickle," who has drawn Melleray s Belle. SOME CRITICISMS. Mr. Albert Humphries, verger at St. Aidan's Church, Birmingham—he became a. verger after losing his job at a South Wales colliery—has incurred the displeasure of the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. W; E. Barnes, by drawing Shaun Goilin. The bishop Js displeased that a. verger, especially of St. Aidan's Church, which has already been the centre of so much religious disturbance in the diocese, should have purchased tickets for a .sweepstake; I disapprove of all forms of gambling, inchiding lotteries," lie said. v ,, r , . The news that 30 people at the Y.M.CA. Hostel in Clapham road had drawn a horse was a surprise to many people in view of the attitafie of the movement on the question of gambling. A serious view of the matter is taken at headquarters. Mr. ]?. J. Chamberlain, National Secretary ot the V.M.C.A., emphasised the hostility of the organisation to gambling, and made an appeal for loyalty on the part of "Y.M." members. "The attitude of the V.M.C.A. is to set its face like flint against every form of gambling," said Mr. Chamberlain. "In my view, the menace of gambling is more sinister even than that of intemperence." It ia only fair to. the V.M.C.A. to point out that the thirty people at the Clapham Road Hostel who will receive over £40 ftach for an investment of i'our-yence, arc sot all members of the association. A!vt;cr<ii: t proportion of the people living "(, the Hostel are •members, the place is open for the use of any young man who rany need ii. room lor the niehl.

"Our position," 'My. Cliambcrlaiu added, "is that' all lotteries am anti-social, and Hial Christian .people should have absolutely no'part in them. I would regard.

giving the address of the V.M.C.A. in connection with a sweepstake as a grave L.'each of loyalty."

SWEEPSTAKE LAW.

Some London newspapers consider the English law of 1523 making sweepstakes and other lotteries illegal needs revision. "Irish hospitals benelited to the extent of some £400,000 from the sweep which was drawn for yesterday," says the "Daily Express." "They will benefit at least naif as much again from the Derby sweep. How long will British hypocrisy or mud-dle-headedness leave our own hospitals out in the cold while millions of British money annually cross the Channel to support some one else's-institutions in atiluence'/" . . The "Morning Post" is of opinion that "the absurdity of trying to stop the sale of sweep tickets in this country could have been demonstrated more plainly. The joke would have been complete hud Mr. Chnes succeeded in drawing a horse himself! The only thing that prevents us fror giving full vent to our hilarity is the reflection that so much good money has left the country. It is not particularly consoling to know that fate has returned a fraction of it, though everyone will give full marks to the Dublin organisers of the sweepstake for the exceedingly efficient manner in which the draw was run." "The law," says the "Daily Telegraph, "while failing completely to avert the evils of sweepstakes, whatever they may be, is brilliantly successful in depriving us of the public-benefits which can be derived from sweepstakes properly controlled. T«he Home Secretary has assured US that he has not yet evidence of any general desire for a change in the law That may well be true. The old feeling against legal sanction for any form of gambling is still strong in considerable sections of the community. The circumstances which compel a reconsideration of the law and the expediency of the matter The "Daily Mail" correspondent in DubTheir pressure will increase as time goes on." The 'Daily Mail" correspondent m Dublin: "They say that .is a result of the big gullible, aiidthc Derby sweep to follow, Dublin will be the world's centre for medical research." This, says a special correspondent or the same journal to-day, is only a beginning. Tickets for the Dublin Derby Sweepstake, already being sold in Great Britain, are expected to produce a total amount far in excess even of that for the Grand National Sweepstake.' There are in future to be three such sweepstakes a. year in Dublin. The total subscribed for each will almost certainly amount iv a short time to £2,000,000, £3,000,000, or £4,000,000. Even at a total of £2,000,000 each, the Irish hospitals, which receive a quarter of all money invested, will then be in receipt of a yearly income of £1,500,000. "No one will question their right to this money or doubt that it will be put to most beneficial uses," , says ■ the writer. "No one questions the scrupulous fairness with which the draw in Dublin, conducted under the authority of the Free State Government, is. made. What offends public opinion in Great Britain is the denial of the right to conduct similar sweepstakes in this country for British hospitals. At least 2,000,000 tickets were sold in England. M.P.'s bought them, the police bought them, everyone bought them. And no one is recorded as haying been a worse citizen for the transaction. The truth, of course, is that it is impossible to enforce a law which has such an overwhelming force of public opinion against it. Unenforceable laws are bad laws and bring the law into contempt. That is precisely what has happened in this case. "Ireland has led the way in commonsense. The Free State Government recognised the fact that the desire to have 'a little flutter' is ineradicable in human nature, does no harm in moderation, and brings many joys in anticipation. ! The British law denies this, and is founded on conceptions of an out-of-date morality.