PUBLIC RUSH FOR TICKETS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1931, Page 9

PUBLIC RUSH FOR TICKETS

NEW SOUTH WALES LOTTERY. POINTS IN ADVERTISING. “It was amazing to see the queues of people Ruing up to obtain tickets in the New South Wales State lottery,” said Mr. H. I. Austad, assistant-manager of J. Hott and Co., Ltd., Wellington, on his return on Tuesday from a business trip to Sydney. The drawing, he said, would take place about every 10 days, the prizes ranging from £5 to £5OOO. It was remarkable how eager - the public was to purchase tickets at ss. 3d. a-piece in a time of such acute financial depression, and a strange point was that tho tickets were issued from the basement of the now closed Savings Bank. The proceeds of the lottery were being devoted to the upkeep of the New South Wales public hospitals. Diecussing the effect of the times on advertising with a Dominion reporter, Mr. Austad said that although advertising turnovers were restricted, a very large percentage of firms did not maintain the view that because advertising was the easiest form of expenditure to slash, it should be the first item to be dispensed with. He found that many firms were renewing their advertising efforts, and were proving tho wisdom of their policy by a successful result. As the result of an aggressive campaign, one firm which he recalled to mind had doubled its monthly turnover. Advertising, and particularly through the Press, was one of the most important components of sales force, and to seriously curtail all publicity simply meant nothing less than seriously curtailing selling effort. 1

Mr. Austad mentioned that athletics generally appeared to be in a fairly good way in Australia, and the “Waratahs” would prove formidable opponents to New Zealand. Golding was at present in training for the Olympic Games next year.