ILLEGAL COMPETITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 14

ILLEGAL COMPETITION.

"WORD-SKILL" A LOTTERY. CONVICTION OF PROMOTER. |BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. I CHRISTCHUnCH, Friday. In the Magistrate's Court this morning the magistrate, Mr. E. D. Mosley, delivered judgment in the "word-skill" competitions cases. The charges were laid against Charles John Brown, one of the promoters of the competition, and Thomas Edward Robson, publisher of the Star newspaper, in which the advertisements appeared. The charges against Brown were:— (1) That on August 8 at Christchurch ho did commence a scheme, whereby a sum of money should be competed for by a mode of chance. (2) That he commenced a similar scheme on August 27. On the first charge Brown was convicted and fined £lO and cost's, and on the second he was convicted and discharged The police stated that they had been unable to trace the published winners, and the whole business had a shady look In giving judgment the magistrate said that in his mind there was no doubt at all that chance played a much larger part in the solution than skill, which was eliminated almost entirely. The charge against the publishei of the Star was that he published an advertisement which made it appear that certain premises were used for the purposes of running a lottery. This charge was dismissed. "I cannot conceive that a Post Office box can be bought under the meaning of the Act as premises," said the magistrate.