ART UNION CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19195, 8 December 1925, Page 10

ART UNION CONTROL.

GOVERNMENT ' REGULATIONS. BALANCE-SHEETS REQUIRED. NO " BROADCASTING " TICKETS. New regulations governing art unions are being brought into force by the Government, the Minister for Internal Affairs possessing absolute powers in this direction under section 92 of the Gaming Act, 1900, without further legislation. Authority to conduct several art unions for largo prizes was given before the Minister decided to restrict the amount of prizes to £SOO, and therefore the public will still have a number of opportunities of taking what must be a very long hazard for fortune, but it is possible tho regulations now adopted will apply to them. In the past it has not been obligatory to submit balance-sheets to the department, and it is not known what the revenue has been. In future balance-sheets will lie required, 'l'lie practice has been for all art unions to be drawn under tho supervision of responsible police officers and they are to bo provided with all the counterfoils of tickets sold, although, of course, this is no guarantee against the }>ossibility of fraud by agents. However, it has been decided that there must bo no "broadcasting" of books of tickets to encourage sales. Sellers must apply for the tickets. It also been decided that the tickets must not bear any advertisement or promise offering to buy the alluvial gold or whatever form prizes may take. The prizes must bo handed over in the form stated. There is to bo no selling of tickets in public places or in factories, boarding houses or places of amusement by children under 16 years. No limit has been placed upon the number of tickets that may be sold in art unions the purpose of which is for public benefit—the making of a sports ground for instance- —but ifi cases where an artist has authority to rafflo pictures the amount is strictly limited to the value placed upon them by tho department. The department has keeping a close watch upon "sweep" enterprises organised m Australia and other countries, the tickets for which have been distributed in New Zealand, evidently with the aid of a directory, and in a number of recent cases they have been proscribed, the delivery of. letters through the New Zealand post having been prevented.