ART UNIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 January 1927, Page 4

ART UNIONS.

(To t'he Editor.) Sir, —The public are indebted to the . secretary of the Agricultural and Pas- ..d toral Society for his lucid explanation of the latest art union. Art union forsooth! The only art about it lies in the degree of development cf what is a lottery pure and simple. Nay, these lotteries have been developed till they are become' an exact science. Thus is the public gulled into believing that fine clothes can -.Me an ugly monster, and the ugly monster is the gambling spirit. I am no lone voice in the wilderness crying out against them. Publicists with no axes to grind and only the good of the country before their eyes are declaiming against this insidious form of gambling. lam ignorant of the affairs of the three show societies in Taranaki, but I have heard that the Hawera Show after an existence of many years, is loaded down to the gunwales with debt, and that had it not been for the unearned rise in the value of land, they would have ‘been driven, to the wall long ago. What is the position? Shows, as shows, have had their day. As amusement parks and advertisements they are a business proposi-' tion. Do show officials believe that they have a mission to force their functions upon a public unwilling to pay the piper? And do they consider that the object is so great a benefaction to the people that they can afford to employ unworthy instruments in effectuating their object? Sir, I was not aware till yesterday that this lottery was in existence—l thought that Taranaki was to be free from the scourge. Gambling on the racecourse is bad enough, but there is this much to be said, that the devotees at least have a outing • and see the gallops. But what redeeming quality is there in a lottery? Everywhere they have been tried. The Government, for no high moral reasons, have had to step in. Where are our Chambers of Commerce, our Rotary Clubs, our churches, our ordinary decent \ citizens, that there is no protest against this insidious and hatpful disease? Righteousness exalteth a nation, but lotteries will eventually damn it.— T am, etc., JOHN O’ LONDON.