ILLEGAL LOTTERIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 June 1933, Page 5

ILLEGAL LOTTERIES

ORGANISER FINED (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON,Ofth June. As a sequel to the Eastbourne Easter carnival, the ‘organiser, Donald Douglas McDonald, was charged at Lower Hutt to-day with establishing a lottery by which a radio set was disposed of by mode of chance, and with establishing a lottery by which a motor-car was similarly disposed of. Pleas of guilty to both' charges were entered.

The police statement mentioned that the fair was to waise funds for the relief of distress, and that defendant offered his services as oragniser. He suggested the lotteries, and was to get 10 per cent of the profits for his organising work. Defendant was warned by the police that the lotteries were illegal, but defendant carried on and completed them. It was claimed that it was a case for a substantial penalty, because defendant had carried on after being warned, and had done it not only for the distress fund, but for gain for himself. Counsel for the defence urged that the offence was committed before Mr E. Page, S.M. gave his decision that the disposal of prizes by a shooting competition was illegal. It was also urged that it was impossible to stop th e lotteries, which were already well under way when the police intervened.

Mr T. B. McNeill, S.M. said that, though lie did not want it to go forth that lie was countenancing breaches of the act, he was of the opinion, considering the objects for which the fund was raised, that these lotteries were on a different footing from the one with which Mr Page was concerned. He convicted defendant on both charges, fined him £5 on the first and ordered him to pay costs on the second.