THE B.N.Z. LOTTERY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 261, 25 July 1895, Page 9

THE B.N.Z. LOTTERY.

[FBOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT]

There is a great sth’ amongst certain Chapel denominations in the South against the proposed Bill to legalize the New Zealand Assets Company to dispose of. their assets in land by means of lottery. At a public meeting recently held in Dunedin and attended by no less than two hundred persons, including members of the Ministers’ Association, a number of the latter spoke in deprecation of the proposition. Ihe chairman, Professor Salmond, D.D., asserted that the meeting had been summoned for the purpose of voicing public sentiment with regard to a huge gambling lottery ,which was seriously proposed by the Government. The B.N.Z. and the Gov•emment seemed to him. for good or for evil, to be in many respects one institution. The Bank had on its hands a large number of intrinsically valuable properties, just now unsaleable, and it occurred to it in its wisdom to get a fair value , for these properties by lottery. This scheme would, it was argued, entail no great hardship on any and it * might be a great gain to some, ! besides helping the Bank, and thus relieving the country of a very pressing and urgent situation. The temptation was considerable, and the evil appeared small and the gain great. Those present at the meeting were there for the purpose of saying very emphatically “ No, we’ll not have it.” (This gained applause from some of the two hundred present.) After some further remarks, he described the whole activity of a gambler as nothing but? greed and avarice, while he possessed in him ' the spirit and the temper of a thief. His desire was to amass property quickly and easily without labour simply to enjoy it, and thus become a sort of social parasite and a slimy creature. Another speaker, the Bev. W. Saunders, put the matter of the proposed lottery in a different light, and asked the t wo hundred if it was moral to support anything that would encourage the people to go against the law of God which for-

bade them to covet the goods of their neighbour. The spirit of Christianity prompted them to give, and the spirit of lottery (whatever that may mean) was to get and get all you can and to get from your neighbour what, you would like yourself—gain for yourself, even if iou s t your brother’s heart on fire with envy. (Could the force of bunkum go further.) • The reverend speaker admitted that a gentlemen had told him that “he had got hold of the wrong end of the stick, as usual.” Then another gentleman a ose and “ coveted ” the power of an Anthony that night in order that he might ruffle (not. raffle) up their spirits and put a “ tongue ” in every wound of this long-suffering body politic that would call the very stones to rise in mutiny. Having expressed this most extraordinary wish, he counselled that they should be temperate in their language. After'this advice he proceeded to call an art union a white-washed lottery, legalised certainly, but a transparent device to enable impecunious individuals and associations to get rid of things they could not sell. His opinion (and in which he differed from the Minister for Labour) was that the only true standard of legislation was the teaching of Corist (Mr Beeves gets his standard from the Book of Deuteronomy) and he asked any “candid” man or woman present whether this proposed Lottery Bill was based on Christ’s teachings. Again he held that if it were not that the Government was deeply involved with the B.N.Z. the Bill would not have been brought forward. If the Premier should put his foot- down and say the Bill must go through he hoped he would rememberthe saying “ the evil men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.” Other rev', gentlemen alsospoke,:ind professed an opinion that it was simply a scheme <o plunder the unsuspecting public of New Zealand and make use of its gambling instincts to bolster up the B.N.Z. in the first place, and the present Government in the second particular. After these remarks, motions deprecatory to the Bill being passed were carried by the mass meeting. At Gore also, after a cake and apron fair had been held for three days, under the auspices of religious bodies whose church funds were largely augmented by lotteries, the proceedings wound up by a concert in which the following songs were reported as having been sung with great success, “ The Three Graces” “ You Dirty Boy,” “Mother Did It,” and “As Others See Us.” This was followed by an indignation meeting, protesting against this Lottery Bill being carried through Parliament. Other churches in the South have also lifted up their voices in emphatic protest against the proposed measure, not one word being uttered in extenuation, although it is probable if some such scheme is not adopted the two million guarantee of the country on behalf of the B.N.Z. may prove a liability that will have sooner or later to be met at thp' expense of the people. On the other hknd, should this lottery take place it would only be participated in by persons who have the money to invest, as it must necessarily be a eash transaction. Ihe money would, in a very groat measure come from those who would not feel its loss, while the gain to those wh > should be- fortunate enough to driw prizes would be considerable and, no doubt, beneficial. The sin .of covetousness can no more be charged against those who may take tickets in the venture should the affair become an accomplished fact, anymore than against a church member who takes a ticket in a lottery held for the purpose of raising funds for the church’s benefit in the first place and the lucky drawer of the prize ticket in the .second place. Far less evil would result from one Bank of New Zealand Estates Company’s lottery, if legalised, than from the legal 207 totalisator sweeps held in New Zealand during the past year, and from which the country has gained arevenue of £10.446 in license fees.