RAFFLES AND WAR FUNDS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2570, 18 September 1915, Page 3

RAFFLES AND WAR FUNDS.

Sir,—Tlie "Otago Witness" publishes an account of a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Gibb at St. John's Church Wellington, on September 5, in which' ho strongly 'objects - to carnival?' and lotteries. He is reported to have said: "As I have noted these ongoings the phrase applied to the dead gladiator sports of old Rome in arena has como again and again to my mind, 'Butchered to make a Born an holiday'." Surely the Rev. Dr._ Gibb.only makes -the quotation to point the difrerenco between the old way and the new. A New Zealand holiday to assist those whom our enemies havo tried to butcher. What a contrast to tho old Roman ■ holiday, when the gladiators were condemned to death by tlie 'desiro of the' holidayfliajiers. The New Zealandere e^crgfj

at tho Carnival gavo thoir presence, time, and money to help restore to health tho wounded soldiers. Personally, 1 think tho Carnival an expensive and cumbersome way of raising money, though I do not for a moment wish to discount the charity and seli-sacriiico of those who took part in them. The ltcv. Dr. Gibb and somo Methodist ministers protest against tho carnivals and lotteries as a means of obtaining funds for tho wounded soldiers. 1 have never heard that they suggested a better way by which an equal sum coidd bo gained for tho same purpose. When a. doctor diagnoses a disease ho prescribes a remedy. I now ask the Rov. Dr. Gibb and tho protesting Methodist ministers to suggest something legitimate and equally remunerative to tho system they decry. II lotteries are such an ovil, what is war? Yet as circumstances justify i the one, may they not tho othor? Desperate disoascs require desperate lomodics. Strychnino is a deadly poison, but used wisely it 'is a powerful l?carti tonic. It is woll-knowu that Tattersal] s swoops are forbidden by tho Government, but does anyono thinly that puts a stop to tho sale of tho tickots 111 Ji elv '■ Hundreds of pounds, perhaps thousands, annually go to Australia for their purchase, and our Government is the loser. Everyono liiiowb it, but it goes on. Those ill authority pretend to ignore it because they know thoy oanuot stop it. My remedy is a otato lottery entirely under Stato control. the Goyernmont to apply tho profni t ' lo ' mu ' s mos t in need of aid. liie \\ ar Fund, Pensions, etc. The idea ot a Stato lottery is hob an original one. Gormany, France, and Italy each have one. llio prizes in those countries j are, I believe, in cash. In such a time j as the present I don't think cash would bo advisable \ it is needed for other pur- I poses. -

The Government has on hand 90,000 acres of- land. I quote from memory, and am subject to correction. This land was acquired by the cutting up of large estates, and is unlet, and I presumo,_ unremunerative. If it were cut up into suitable-sized blocks and offered as prizes I am sure the Government would have no difficulty in disposing of it. It would' then pay taxes as well as growing crops.—l am, etc., WAR FUNDS. [This letter has been condensed.]