GOVERNMENT AND LOTTERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 19

GOVERNMENT AND LOTTERIES

Sir,—Has Dr. J. J. North ever really mixed and talked with those who indulge in lotteries? The pleasure people get from having even a small interest in a lottery ticket is amazing to see. No, it is not an avaricious longing, it's just good fun. It is a wonderful thing that a few pennyworths can bring so much happiness and amusement into what often tends to become a very drab existence. And in New Zealand, what is the result —money is gained from all classes of the community, willingly, for charitable purposes, a much happier way than dragging it out by taxation; hundreds who otherwise would be a charge on the State are employed; and no harm is done to anyone. What is needed in New Zealand is a modernising of our art unions—better prizes, more frequent drawings, and here I might add a word for those all-weather ticket sellers—a bonus for them; they do not loiter on the street corners to prey "611 the community, but earnestly try to earn a few shillings to keep themselves from becoming burdens 011 the State. That is what we want in this country, and that is the most pleasant form of taxation ever thought of. As to that dangerous capitalist monopoly in Liobart, Dr. North treads dangerous ground; attack it because it is a capitalist organisation, then attack all capitalist organisations, not forgetting our capitalistic religious bodies. Mut is the» exodus of money so terrible? A large amount goes away, certainly, but* then much comes back also —phenomenally so in the last three or four years. Besides, in the sale ot stamps and postal notes the authorities have a- good source of revenue. If this goes, the result must bo increased taxation. But the main point is, in any case, what would happen to the money, if people were forbidden to send it overseas to these lotteries? Then is applied to this subject that cryptic utterance of the Hon. the Minister of Finance: •' Work must be the title to wealth." Of course it must. But if small wealth gained by hard work is multiplied a thousandfold by a lucky ticket in a lottery,, will the Government frown 011 it as " ill-gotten capitalist gains." 1 think not. I can almost hear the Hon. Mr. Nasli saying, " Good luck to you." Our Government is striving for a better life for our people—work, yes, but happiness, the happiness of the people, that is the great thing in life. And so even the small things in life, which' we know give pleasure and happiness to the people, must not be taken away to satisfy a dogma expounded by a few. R. T. Williams.