STATE LOTTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 8

STATE LOTTERY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The hardy annual of State lotteries is blooming again, anu "Advance," apparently with the imprimatur of the Hon. W. E. Parry, is advocating its cultivation. The figures given at first sight are big enough to make the eyes of the Minister of Finance glisten; not so big when you bear in mind that they cover 18 years. ■'Advance" does not tell us what it cost during those 18 years to secure such a rake-off. Nor does he show how he is going to stop the avaricious mind from still sending its money to any country that dangles a gold bar before its eyes. These people have no, patriotism to appeal to, or they would put their flutter money into the local shows now offering 300' days' of the year at almost every other corner. Let us make our little pile by honest industry and production; the lottery business produces nothing but waste. If anyone has money to burn let him put it where the Government can use it in developing the waste lands of our country. But if he wiD pursue that will-o-the-wisp of trying to get something for nothing at the expense of his neighbour, be patriotic and patronise the local shows already here.—l am, etc.,

HOMO.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have come home to New Zealand after being in Sydney and Tasmania for the last twelve years, and I like to have a little gamble. I think a State lottery for New Zealand would be good revenue for our hospitals and dozens of other charities, as the lotteries are in Sydney and Tasmania. If our people were over there, and saw the revenue that goes to charity they would wake up and keep their money here in a lottery of their own. A lot of people say: "Look at the prizes we win in Tatts," but they do not look at what they leave there. If we win £ 12,000 we leave the same there. In Sydney, for instance, they draw three lotteries a fortnight and out of every lottery they draw they make a profit of £12.550. I will give you the Sydney lottery figures. One hundred thousand tickets at 5s 3d are worth £26,250. The prizes ranging from £5000 to 500 of £5 each, total -£13,700. This leaves a profit of £12,550, and why not keep that for New Zealand? I have been on the drawing of the Sydney lottery, and have seen the Tasmanian one drawn too, and there is nothing fairer in the world. Why can't we have one the same?—l am, etc.,

I LIKE A LITTLE GAMBLE.