NEW STATE LOTTERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 197, 21 August 1931, Page 12

NEW STATE LOTTERY

THE TEMPLE OF CHANCE SYDNEY’S RUSH FOR TICKETS. ‘ ALONEY FLOWING LIKE WATER.’ The extraordinary scene at the official opening of the New South Wales •State lottery in Sydney on August 10 icflected strikingly the community’s inherent love of a gamble at the temple of Caance, and the ability of many obviously impecunious people in the crowd to find money for that purpose even in days of depression, says the Sydney Alorning Herald. The queue awaiting, from an early hour, tickets at the lottery department at the State Savings Bank building extended, in ciose double line, from the doors of the establishment along Castlereagh Street, up the lane alongside the bank and through to Elizabeth Street. In the crowd were people of all ages and conditions. Not a few were obviously unemployed. Some were down at heel. Tho queue increased in size as the day wore on, until there were thousands in serried file. Hundreds were still lined up when the doors closed at 4 o ’•clock for the day. Inside, at the closing hour, the crowd was lined up two deep along the counters. The congestion was such in front of tho department that several policemen had to make passage for citizens pursuing their lawful occasions. Money flowed like water. A middleaged man, alongside whom was a young Chinese filling in a form, was toying with a wad of notes and silver, ‘and appeared to be getting in a hopeless muddle, when an official, displaying the qualities of a lightning calculator, came to his aid, Unemployed Man’s Venture, In tho rush the first to emerge through the doors when they opened at 10 a.m. was a young unemployed tradesman, who admitted tn at he had a wife and six children and had been out of regular work for about 18 months. He was asked how he had obtained the means to buy a lottery ticket. “Oh,” he said, “I’ve been doing a bit of gardening—growing

vegetables, and so on.” Of tho first batch allowed in, the fourth in the line was an elderly woman, writh hope in

xivf vjvis, ami an application rorni ioi a ticket gripped tightly in her hand. A big crowd watched the scene from adjacent footpaths. “And they say there’s no money in the country,” drily observed a spectator as he viewed the proceedings, which recalled, in a measure, tho scene outside the bank when it suspended payment. By way of concession, apparently, a constable was allowed in, among a few others, before tho rush and tendered a 10s note for a ticket. A man in the crowd found a horseshoe and clung to it tenaciously amid the banter of those round him. Remarkable Human Motley. In the queue were a number of well-dressed women, although men predominated. It was an extraordinary human motley, each hoping that his or her ticket would see the birth of a modern Croesus. Before tho crowd as it proceeded to the •counter was the tempting spectacle of the barrel from which the lucky numbers are to be drawn. The big staff, consisting mainly of young women, under the supervision of tho director of the lottery, Alr.Whiddon, did its work expeditiously and well. The crowd was handled in batches to prevent congestion. In the first lottery are 100,000 tickets but many thousands of them had been distributed before the official opening. It was thus probably because of a desire not to be left out of it that many took up places in tho queue several hours before the doors opened. As soon ns one lottery is drawn another will be conducted. The object is to assist the hospitals. The stream of applications continued on following days, it being estimated that tickets were being issued at the rate of 1200 a day. _ The first lottery, embracing 100,000 tickets, represents £26,000.