“WORLD BLIND TRUST”

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1931, Page 15

“WORLD BLIND TRUST”

NEW GIGANTIC LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS AT DANZIG. GRAND NATIONAL SWEEPSTAKE. iplans have been completed recently at a conference in London for a sweepstake which the organisers behove will be the greatest the world. has yet known. It .will be called the World Blind. Subscription Fund, and the headquarters will be at Danzig. The venture lias been known to the authorities of We Jubilee Institute for the Blind at Auckland (for some time, but the director, Mr. Clutha Mackenzie, says it is not regarded with favour, and the institute 'has no desire to participate in any way. It feels that in any case far too large a proportion of the takings would be swallowed up by the syndicate, which has no connection with the World Council of the Blind. For more than a year the people responsible have been .working on the details, but it was not until recently that the last of the many difficulties were overcome, states an English paper. Oricinallv it was intended to have a .sweepstake on the last Derby, but a beginning will now bo made with the Grand National, which will be run at Ain tree on Match 18 next . Already, however, tickets are being printed for a second sweep on the 1332 Derby and it is possible if success is met that in coming years there will be a sweepstake on the majority of the big races. DIRECTORS OF FUND.

The World Blind Trust is a company formed to finance the undertaking, and it will 'be governed by three managers and four representatives of the World Blind Subscription Fund. The ifund is described as ‘a charitable organisation formed to receive moneys from the sweepstake.’’ It has four managers, two of whom are English. These managers are controlled by a committee, whose .members are drawn from Great Britain, the United States of America, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, the Dominions, and various Continental court-t-jriCS, It is proposed that every blind institution in the world will be represented on the council, but the allocation of funds will be in (the hands of the chief committee, who .will award the amounts as the needs of the different countries demand. TWENTY YEARS’ CONCESSION. •Tn addition, the Free State of Danzig, which has granted a. 20 ycaV ® a «ion to the organisers, has appointed a commissioner- who will act as a sort af Oi.nervisor The mam object of the ,‘Xp.Uk. 1. to taoilt the 01M. When the time comes for a . distr ibutton it will bear a certain relation to the total amount subscribed. . „ What this will 'be is naturally a matter for iH’ca&work, but as tickets will be sold in every 'country in Lm’ope in Britain, in the Dominions, and in Noith and South America, it is considered possible that the aggregate will be several million pounds. Tickets for the Grand National sweepstake are now on sale in many couth tries. 'They state that the fund is; under the chairmanship of Mr. G. I*. Mowatt, British member of the executive committee of International Blind Congresses, and Mr. C. G. Henderson, president of the All India Blind Association. FIFTEEN PER CENT. TO BLIND. The tickets are priced at ten shillings and the amounts received from subscribers, calculated in accordance with the concession, will be distributed as follows:—Eighty-five per cent., after deduction thereout of the audited expenses will be distributed as prizes; the balance of I's per cent, will be paid to the World Blind Trust; for every £lOO.000 subscribed £30,000 will be. awarded as a first prize, £15,000 as a second.prize and £lO,OOO as a third prize. The drawers of all horses not declared forfeit ‘by March 8 will also receive money prizes, but if the sum available does nob exceed £lOO,OOO it is stated that “the entire sum will be the prize unit, and will be distributed in the proportion of the prizes out of tlic

prize unit of £100,000.” Should the race not take place the prize money will be divided equally among (the drawers of horses.