£50,000 PRIZE WINNER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3843, 7 December 1936, Page 4

£50,000 PRIZE WINNER

HUNDREDS TO HELP HIM SPEND THE MONEY. “It would take at least £150,000 to satisfy all the people who have written asking for help,” said Mr Walter Devon, winner of £50,000 in the' Melbourne Cup sweepstake, when he arrived at Wellington last Friday. With the aid of his friends, Mr W. Farmer and Mr W. Salmond, he . gave The Dominion an idea of the work entailed in handling the enormous mail of a sweepstake prize winner. Three grain sacks would barely hold the letters, Mr Devon estimated. Every letter had been read, but only a few answered. They were from people who contented themselves with congratulating him. Of the rest lie had taken no notice. In many of the letters substantial sums were named, as, for instance, the £17,000 required to take over the mortgage of a South Otago sheep farmer, and other figures of £5OOO to £3OOO for a like purpose. Hundreds promised him a fortune if lie cared to invest his money. One man had a scheme to corner the stamp collecting market. Most of the large sums asked, however, were needed by mortgage burdened farmers, several of whom suggested that a loan be made without interest. More appeals have come from marlied women, Mr Devon remarked, than from any other class, and they all ended with the caution, “Don’t let my husband know I have written.” A number of women, too, seemed keen to marry him. A surprising quantity of mail came by registered air mail from Australia; but. it went the way of the rest. Mr Devon is determined to help only those who were good to him in his own days of hardship. “Others may save their trouble,” he said. “I never knew them before, and I am not worrying about them now, nor about the people who could have helped me before and didn't.” Mr Devon has become an enthusiastic motorist with the purchase of a new car. Not an expensive one, he explained, for he would have to leave it behind when he left with his friend Mr Salmond, whom he has taken from the soldiers’ camp at Paraparaumu, on their trip to England. Ho has no intention of remaining in England, but is not yet decided what he will do on his return to New Zealand. Taking up golf is an idea which appeals to him. In the meantime he is out to enjoy himself, and to enjoy helping his friends. Incidentally the prize is £51,000. Buying his ticket direct from Hobart, he earned £lOOO for selling it to him-1 self.