ART UNION PROPOSAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21132, 15 March 1932, Page 6

ART UNION PROPOSAL.

ASSISTING UNEMPLOYED. CLERGYMAN'S ATTACK. MORAL EFFECT DEPLORED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELIiIJ. GTOJT. Monday. Preaching in St. John's Church last evening, the Rev. J. R. Blanchard referred to the intimation that an art union would probably be held before the wimer to assist the unemployed. In effect, said Mr. Blanchard, such an art union would be a State lottery and would involve the Government in a deliberate exploitation of a public evil for the benefit of the State itself. It would be remembered, said Mr. Blanchard, that some months ago the Prime Minister issued a letter appealing for the exercise of a spirit of sacrifice. Now it would appear that his Government, instead of curbing, was about to enlarge the scope of something which cut at, the very nerve of the spirit of sacrifice by appealing to and fostering a spirit of cupidity. That was not the way for the Government to retain the confidence of the country or to inspire in the people that faith which present necessities demanded. Adding to Present Burdens. An Economic Commission had recently been appointed thoroughly to investigate the country's financial position, and to recommend ways in which a recovery might be effected. Did the commission recommend a State lottery ? asked Mr. Blanchard. Everybody knew it did not, for no economist of standing to-day would stultify himself by advocating a lottery system as a method of national finance. It was only reasonable to expect the Government to recognise that fact and not add to the present burdens the cruel temptation which lottery schemes made to careworn people, many of whom were led by them to plunge deeper into the morass of poverty. In its special unemployment tax the Government had all the power it required to secure a better and more profitable return for assistance to the unemployed than a lottery could ever achieve. It was only necessary that the Prime Minister iihould attack the situation with the same courage which all parties acknowledged he had shown in his administration from its very inception. New South Wales Warning. The State lottery recently launched in New South Wales, which had earned the condemnation of all decent people, was a timely warning to New Zealand, said Mr. Blanchard. Among other evils which it had created was to be noted the fact that children at primary schools were investing their pennies in shilling lotteries for a share in a single State ticket. " Everywhere grows this great and most perilous evil of cultivating a distaste for hard work, and of offering some other way of comfort. The sole result has been to accelerate a general shiftlessness. which is infecting an unpleasantly large proportion of the population of all Australia. The sordid gamble is breeding an attitude of fatuous irresponsibility, and an unheeding disregard of what the future may have in store." That, said Mr. Blanchard, was the condemnation made, not bv any puritan preacher in an Australian pulpit, but by the Sydney Bulletin. The Bulletin had in this matter aligned itself with Punch, which had pilloried the lottery system in a characteristic cartoon of caustic condemnation. " Selling of Nation's Soul." In view of all the facts, concluded Mr. I Blanchard, it was not too much to say that, although a considerable sum might be raised by such a lottery, the essential fact would remain that its inauguration would be the selling of the nation's soul for a magnified " thirty pieces of silver." " I believe that, at heart, this Dominion really is sound," said Mr. Blanchard, " and that pfeople expect the Government to resist the temptation of a State lottery and to refuse to be such a salesman, at the same time taking the opportunity to make an end of the whole art union business, of which all decent people have become heartily sick."

TE AROHA COMMITTEE. STATE LOTTERIES FAVOURED. [from: ora own correspondent. 1 TE AROHA, Monday. Afc the last meeting of the Te Aroha Unemployment Committee a letter from the Masterton committee was received concerning a motion it had passed urging the Government, to inaugurate a series of State lotteries for the raising of funds for the relief of unemployment and charitable aid. On the motion of Mr. H. J. Plase, seconded by Mr. Grice, it was decided to support the proposal of the Masterton committee.