STATE LOTTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 10

STATE LOTTERY

SCHEME OPPOSED

PROTEST BY PRESBYTERY

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day,

Renewed protests against the suggestion of the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. E. Parry)- that a State lottery should be established in New Zealand, were made by- the Presbytery of Auckland last night. A letter was received from the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, stating that he would carefully note an earlier protest forwarded by the Moderator, the Rev. R. Ferguson Fish.

The Rev. J. W. Smith, convener of

the puhlic questions committee, moved that the action of the Moderator in sending, the protest should be confirmed. , He said the fact that Mr. Parry had'suggested the holding of State lotteries because people were sending thousands of pounds out of the country for overseas consultations had immediately encouraged them1.

The Presbytery endorsed the action of the Moderator in protesting agaftist the establishment of a State lottery as suggested by the Minister, and renewed the objection-on the following grounds:—

(1) That it is not" in the public interest that the gambling habit should be further stimulated by State approval and the provision of additional facilities; (2) that there is no guarantee that the money at present leaving the country for overseas lotteries will be retained by the provision of local facilities; (3) that it is much more likely that many new gamblers will be created by the new facilities, and that many will be from growing youth; (4) that a lottery is an expensive luxury which fastens a number of parasites on the workers, and that the experience of other countries proves that the standard of living is lowered by gambling habits, and that legitimate business is made unnecessarily difficult; (5) that in view of the introduction of social security with its great cost, there is something fundamentally unsound in stimulating an interest in insecurity with its attendant waste.

The Presbytery recommended that, in view of the introduction of a proposal for a State lottery, ministers should take an early opportunity, if they had not already done so, ot impressing on congregations the Christian's obligation to use all" his possessions as unto God.