LOTTERIES FOR HOSPITALS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 6

LOTTERIES FOR HOSPITALS

BILL BEFORE THE LOWER HOUSE “FOLLOWING OTHERS’ EXAMPLE.” (By Wire—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. A proposal to grant powers to hospital boards, to permit funds to be raised for the support of public hospitals by means of sweepstakes and drawings of prizes was put forward by Mr. G. C. C. Black in a Bill introduced in the House of Representatives to-day. It is proposed that any two or more hospital boards may conduct a sweepstake or drawing of prizes by means of a joint committee appointed by them and subject to a scheme approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs. . It is suggested the Act shall come into operation on October 1, 1931. Mr. Black said that other countries had adopted this method of financing their public hospitals and other sanatoria. Surely, he said, New Zealand could do likewise. Our first concern should be to help the sick and injured, and if New Zealand money was being invested in sweepstakes the sensible thinw for Parliament to do was to allow hospital' boards to run sweepstakes and so turn investments into a charitable channel. There had been much talk in the past regarding the legalising of Tattersall’s, the conducting of Stat* sweepstakes, and so on.