ART UNION PERMITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21136, 19 March 1932, Page 14

ART UNION PERMITS.

Sir, —Your correspondent, Sir. S. Farr, has quite mistaken the purport of my letter on the above subject. I did not write to -'object to the Government- giving preference' to deserving cases." but to contend that the Government is wrong in giving permits for so-called art unions at. all, on the ground that tlie name "art union" is merely a euphemism for a gamble. Where does the "art" come in ? If any man asks another to put half-a-crown on a horse in expectation of a dividend —whether £5 or £50 —we call ifc gambling. But when asked to put a half-crown in an art union in the hope of! being luckv and drawing £2OOO we call it charitv. The principle is precisely the same. Your correspondent a:>ks, "Do not wa all gamble all our lives?" No, certainly we do not. Would our friend put a half-crown on the chance of a donkey beating Phar Lap in a race ? We all do our best to eliminate chance from our lives. -AH business men, whether members of the Stock exchange or not, make it their aim to be certain of a margin of profit. They do not want chance, they want certainty. When voting for his M.P. surely Mr. *ar tried to find out who was the best man of those offering for.that honour. ■!>«• Farr says ho cannot see anything immoral in "trusting to luck instead of o honest hard work." It all depends upon the point of view. Some men can ,? k nothing immoral in a jemmy and a suck of dynamite. It all depends upon man and the purpose. Then he argu > "If people cannot afford a ticket and ar so easily led, they deserve to P a y their folly, which is nobody else s bus - ness." But it is somebody else's bus ness. If I owe a man money 1 nave no right to throw away money on a ramble, whether on a racecourse or in < art union. lam wronging him s P® n , ing a pennv more than is sun T i * keep me till that debt is paid money is the other man s until 1 liquidated mv indebtedness. Alt un , are insidiously spreading tb ;s fe\er gambling to the detriment of our peop • From the moral standpoint gambling a worse effect upon the individua has drunkenness. Our Government most certainly committing a P' 1 : t _ moral wrong by extending these pei - l'or art unions or doing anything courage the spirit of gambling, in ever diluted a form, for it is a curs® both to individuals and to nations. J. Fahquharson Jones.