ART UNIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 21 June 1926, Page 2

ART UNIONS

-MORE EFFECTIVE RESTRICTIONS

When last lie made a statement on the subject of art unions, the .Minister of Internal. Affairs said he had decided to put his foot down on the wholesale abuse of the Gaming Act’s permission of ‘ mineral specimen” .prizes. Since then the Prime Minister has uttered a downright condemnation of this thinlydisguised illegality, and intimated that therp WQtild be no* more permits. Mr Bollard announced the other day the precise way in which the abuse of the law will be crushed. An amendment will be made in the Act, tile term “mineral specimens” being excised from the list of articles that may be disposed of bv raffle or chance. This, comments the Xew Zealand Herald, should effectively put a. stop to the noxious practice that has stultified all the anti-agm-ing legislation on the Statute Book, a practice to which the Minister has been a party hitherto in the exercise of the discretionary power given him bv the wording of the law. When that law was enacted in 1831 it was npt suspect-, ed that, under the flimsv pretence of offering alluvial gold as a prize, money would be raised by lotteries for cash’. The intention was obviously to allow only “art unions” properly so called. The amendment nmv to be made will put an end to the gambling on a grand scale that has hooded the country as a nuisance and a menace. The Prime Minister’s strictures were fully warranted and Mr Bollard’s announcement that the Government's decision is 1o take effect immediately is very welcome. The attendant evils named by Mr Bollard—the temptation to dishonesty provided hv the broadcasting of tickets, the emergence of the professional promoter and the incurring of frightfully heavy flotation expenses—have been quite as had as he avers: hut they have been less pernicious than (he positive encouragement of gambling given by the alleged “art unions” themselves.' It is well that the end of this unwholesome business is so definitely in sight.