BAN ON LOTTERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18364, 3 April 1923, Page 3

BAN ON LOTTERIES.

■.—--— . .♦'.'. ———:.:. POLICE ART UNION. \ , INCIDENT IN N.S. WAL-&S. EFFECT OF NEW LEGISLATION. [from OVB. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] SYDNEY. March 28. . The legislation which came into fore* in Now South Wales in February prohibiting the sal© of even legally-sanction-ed art union tickets in public streets or places, and otherwise restricting anything in the nature of lotteries, has had the curious effect of obliging the police to restrict their own activities — necessity to which many have not submitted with the best grace. Originally in conjunction with the ■ firemen of the State, and latterly on their own account, tho policemen have conducted an annual carnival and art union in aid of the funds of public hospitals, raising in the course of seven years ~or so a sum, amounting in the aggregate to tens of thousands of pounds. Under the new legislation, such art unions are generally illegal, but special permission in tho case of charities is obtainable from the Crown Law authorities, with stringent restrictions on the sale of tickets. For contravening these, five vendors of the police art union tickets have been prosecuted in tho course of a month, and the promoters have now announced that the position has become so impossible that the annual custom will bo abandoned after the termination of tho present art union. This decision, followed a pointed inquiry from the Crown Law Office, addressed "to the Inspector-General of Police, as to exactly what action was being taken by th© police to' see that the new law was being complied with. Up to that time policemen in uniform were to be seen daily visit,;.;-. ,he bam of hotel?/ and other places and inviting people to buy tickets in their own art union. The promoter of the - legislation, however, was the Attorney-General, Air. Bavin, a . man of emphatic views on various aspects of social reform, and not one who would stand idly by and tolerate any lax interpretation of one of his pet reforms by State employees. So not only had a general tightening up to be mad*© in the force, but plain-clothec men, on an adapted application of a certain old formula which might be rendered "set a policeman to catch a policeman," were sent out to see that there were no transgressions of the regulations. ; c