LOTTERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19150, 16 October 1925, Page 9

LOTTERIES

Sir,—l notice that the Baptist conference now sitting has condemned in strong languago tlio growing prevalence of lotteries. No doubt some of til© members of the Baptist conference are really serious but how do they define a lottery ? Quite recently an art union was held in connection with tho Society of Arts in Auckland. Two winners in that art union were well-known business men, one an official of the Baptist Tabernacle, the other an elder in the Presbyterian ChurchNow these gentlemen are business menbcyond reproach. Would tho Baptist Church say these men are immoral men because they speculate in an art union ? Perhaps it was not a lottery. Put, after all. life is a lottery; insurance is a lottery. Who shall define it? Perhaps our Baptist friends will do so for me. Curious.

Sir. —In yonr report of the Baptist Union debate on the lottery question yon drew the teeth o£ the attack. Tho big prize lottery has been scotched. The small prize lottery has, under ecclesiastical auspices, become more wasteful and more menacing than the big humbugs were. The " St. Michael's art union," underwritten by Dean Light-heart, has addressed in confidential terms tho barbers of tho Dominion offering them 50 per cent, of all tickets money, and, as a spur, a £IOO prize should they sell the winning ticket. Such terms naturally tend to change ths character of barbers' shops. A second letter from St. Michael's warns the vendors of the activity of the police, and stresses quite unctuously the way to earn easy money by vending tickets. There aro quite a few people who are making a brisk living selling lottery tickets, and there are men who refuse honest work because of the promise of the new occupation. The documents referred to above are in the hands of the Minister for the, Interior. It is surely sufficiently a matter '' of public concern that the situation should bo outlined in tho columns of the Hep..vi.u. J. J. North.