A HALT IN RAFFLES

Evening Star, Issue 19519, 29 March 1927, Page 4

A HALT IN RAFFLES

•‘AN INTOLERABLE NUISANCE”

ART UNION SECRETARY FINED

(Per United Press Association.]

WANGANUI, March 28. A £lO fine was inflicted upon George Ormsby, secretary of the Castlecliff Beach Improvement Society, at the Magistrate’s Court to-day ft>r breach of the regulations under which a permit for a beach improvement art union was issued. Among the conditions, defendant was not to deliver books <rf tickets indiscriminately, but was to await applications. Last month, however, defendant sent out tickets with a covering letter, and these, with some envelopes, fell into the hands of the police. During the police evidence it transpired that the butts of one book were found on the river bank. The seller of this apparently decamped with the money. Defendant raised the novel point that if a person had purchased a ticket in another art union it was sufficient acknowledgment that the purchaser was willing to act as agent. The circulars enclosed were only personal letters to agents. The Magistrate (Mr J. S. Barton) held that the sentence, “I enclose book of tickets,” clearly indicated a breach of the permit conditions. The time had arrived for a halt , in raffles, which were becoming an intolerable nuisance in the community. In the case under review there was a distinct flouting of the Act, which made for bad citizenship.