SICK MAN WINS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18760, 26 December 1930, Page 10

SICK MAN WINS.

BIG ART UNION PRIZE. “DON’T TELL ME THAT!” - No one in Christchurch, so his friends say, is more deserving of the first prize of £2OOO in the Lucky Star Art Union than Mr J. Fisher, a labourer, employed in the Christchurch tramway workshops, who lives at 106 Glandovey Road, Fendalton. Only three weeks ago Mr Fisher was taken seriously ill, and after more than 20 years’ service was faced with an enforced retirement from work, which he could ill afford. “Don’t tell me that!” he said when a reporter brought him from his bed to the telephone shortly after 10 o’clock last night. When he was finally assured that the news was true, he went on breathlessly: “Yes, it’s a godsend. I’m very, very grateful. Yes it will come in handy all right.” He asked the reporter not to come in and see him. The shock was great and he doubted if his heart could stand it. “Come in in the morning,” he said. "Not now, but it’s wonderful news.” A friend of Mr Fisher’s who has known him for more than 30 years said that never had money come at a more opportune time than this. Mr Fisher was a sober, hard-working man, who had been for many years at the tramway workshops. He lived with his wife in Glandovey Road in a house that was up for sale only three weeks ago. Since he bought the art union ticket he had been taken seriously ill and there was some doubt whether he I would be again able to do a labourer’s \ strenuous work. He had not been 1 able to save much during the best years of his life and had lately been greatly worried by the prospect of retirement, particularly when he was faced with a bill for doctor’s attention.