Wanganui Lottery.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19211, 18 September 1934, Page 4

Wanganui Lottery.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE, SIXPENCES? POSITION OF SUBSCRIBERS. What about those sixpences? Some £BOO, in sixpences, has been subscribed in New Zealand in the lottery—prize, one motor-car —inintended to build up funds for the Wanganui free ambulance; and if you work out how many sixpences there are in £BOO, you will approximate the total of citizens of the Dominion who have read with consternation the announcement that the principal promoter has been fined for running the lottery. As, presumably, the lottery will not be drawn—what about those sixpences? There is an interesting English case which might have some bearing on the point, but the position in the Wanganui lottery might need to be tested before subscribers to the lottery could know where they stood, Even if it became necessary, or possible, or were desired, to sue for recovery of a sixpense, would it pay? A study of the fees for such actions suggests that it would not pay. To gain your sixpence in this manner, you would be required to pay a 5/- issuing fee, and a 3/- or 5/judgment fee, depending on whether the action were defended or not. A costly sixpence. The English case was an action against an English publisher who started a “missing word” competition in a periodical. A sentence was published, omitting the last word, and an invitation was issued to the public to send along a shilling and a word suitable to fill the vacancy in the sentence. Those who guessed the right word were to share the sum thus collected. Action was taken, and it was held that such a lottery was unlawful, and the money subscribed in the competition was paid into court. It was further held, however, that competitors had a right to claim their entry fees. The court could not aid in the distribution of the fund, but, it was held, each contributor might recover his shilling from the publisher of the periodical, to whom the entire sum involved was ordered to be repaid in order that he might meet any legal claim.