Bigger Prizes

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7243, 24 August 1933, Page 3

Bigger Prizes

LOTTERY CRAZE EFFECT ON REVENUE SYDNEY August 11 Tie great lottery question is once more the centre of public interest here, and a definite change appears to have taken place in the attitude of the Government towards it. Air Stevens is certainly amneable to ithc great inlluence exercised by the Churches in this matter, an ijo doubt if he ■ could see his way to any adequate financial alternative he would abolish (he lottery and raise the money required for the hospitals from some other source. But there is no other source available, and Air Weaver, as Alinister of Public Health, has come o the front again with a strong defence of the lottery and a virtual demand that the system shall be maintained and extended in tho interests of the hospitals which need at least £BOO,OOO a year to carry on and cannot maintain their efficiency or meet the public needs without it. Over £70,000 Sent to Brisbane. The determining factor in this new development has been the great success of the Queensland “Golden Casket’’ [lottery and the indefatigable activity of its promoters. The offer of £20,000 prizes in Brisbane—tho maximum here being still £sooo—seems to have appealed strongly to the imagination of our people, and a coustant stream of money has been flowing northward j over the border for many weeks past. One lottery which filled for £IOO,OOO ' drew over £70,000 from New South j Wales while only £II,OOO was raised in Queensland; and this meant a direct loss of nearly £30,000 in one month to our own hospitals. Air Weaver himself has stated publicly that in two successive £25,000 prize lotteries 60 per cent of the funds came from New South Wales, and he has also said that while ,ho had hoped for £BOO,OOO from this State's lotteries for the hospitals for tho current year, he will have to be content with at least £300,000 less if the present drain goes on. Just now the outlook for our own lotteries seems worse than ever, by reason of e new "plan of campaign” [instituted by the Queensland "golden I casket” organisers. They havo sent ! large numbers of application forms ! to Now South Wales addresses, asking the recipients to distribute them, and promising that if prizes are drawn by j any of the tickets thus sold the distri- • butor will receive a bonus ranging ! from £250 to £25 for any one of the : first 13 prizes. This is certainly an j effective way of securing publicity, and | the sale of tickets is increasing so I rapidly that many people believe that . ' our hospitals will loso not less than ■ £500,000 a year to Queensland if the ( present order of tilings is maintained. l Health Minister’s iVows. With all these facts to consider, Air 1 Weaver lias made his decision. He has ■ contributed to tho “Sunday Sun” a long article on lotteries which is virtu- 1 ally an ultimatum to his colleagues, lie : has traced the history pf lotteries in 1 the past, reminding-us that the casting s of lots is a practice established by the 1 precedent and authority of the Scrip- 1 tures, that no less than £18,000,000 has s gone from England to Ireland to sup- 1 port the Irish hospitals since the sweepstakes were instituted in 1930, i and that similar distributions from i funds issued on horse races elsewhere are being made for chariable purposes < in England today. He then attacks < what he terms "the inconsistency and t hypocrisy” of those critics who sup- 1 port orio form of gambling while i condemning another. He points out < that the Churches have constantly pro- ‘ fited by art unions, and other legalised : forms of gambling, and he argues: “So long as betting is legal, newspapers permitted to give tips to their readers, bookmakers and totalisators registered, « the public must be excused for not tak- i

mg the prohibition of lotteries seriously. ”

Other Forms of Gambling. Air 'Weaver goes on to maintain that all forms of insurance are gambling, that much so-called “business” and nearly all land-buying is gambling, and that finance on tho Stock Exchange is largely gambling. He repeats that everybody who buys a lottery ticket contributes—whether he likes it or not —about 2/- to “the alleviation of pain and suffering”; and he points to the avenues for speculation still open to our gamblers, in Queensland and Tasmania, if we close down our own lottery on the pretext of “higher morality,” and let our people send their money elsewhere. For all these reasons, he concludes, “I do most strongly advocate a continuance of the New South Wales lottery/’ and this final statement of his convictions places Air Weaver in a position from which he cannot hope to retreat. Of course, Air AVeaver is careful to remind his readers that he is expressing only his own opinions. But in this case it is easy to read between the lines. After such a declaration it would hardly bo possible for him to retain his portfolio or remain in the Cabinet if he failed to carry his colleagues with him. Cabinet’s Changed View.

Immediately following the appearance of this article, reports began to circulate which pointed plainly to a change of front on the part of the Ministry. The "Sydney Aloming Herald’’, which usually responds last of all our newspapers to tho fluctuating rumours of the hour, has come into tho field with a series of statements which at least appear to have official authority bchind them. It asserts that the Government will not abolish the State Lottery, that the term of the new director, who was appointed for three months only, will be extended; and that the majority of Alinisters are not only in favour of the lottery, as the only practicable way of financing flic hospitals, and other charitable instituions, but they would support a scheme for occasional £25,000 prizes on a £1 subscription basis, to enable this State to compete on fair terms with Queensland and stop tho drift of money over the northern border.

No positive decision has been reached on these matters yet, but Cabinet is to consider them very shortly, and no doubt the forecast will prove correct. _ Neither Air Stevens nor the Cabinet as a whole can afford to do without tho lottery funds or without Air AVeaver, and the Alinisters’ statement. of his ease, backed by a strong appeal from the president of the New South AVales Hospitals’ Association, seems to have carried the day.