TRENTHAM ART UNION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 262, 1 August 1919, Page 8

TRENTHAM ART UNION

DRAWING TAKES PLACE

PROCEEDS EXCEED £35,000

The drawing of the Trentham Art Union took place in the Town Hall last night. The hull wits open to' the public, and many hundreds of people watched the proceeding!-, and eagerly compared Iho winning numbers with their own tickets. The Mayor (Mr. -J. P- Luke, M.P. presided, and "the Minister of Internal Affairs (lion. Li. W. Russell) was present. The members of the 'Irentham Art I,'nioii Committee were on the platform. The drawing was done by the Government Statistician (Mr. Malcolm L'raser), who drew all the military, service ballots during the war. The butts of the tickets sold, some 750 (WO in number, were contained;) in a huge barrel, seven feet in diameter, tins barrel., with its load of tickets, weighed about five hundredweight. It was mounted on an nxle, and could he spun by the united efforts of half_ a dozen men. A smaller barrel contained the T>ri7.e 'numbers. One of these numbers was drawn, and a ticket was then drawn from the larger barrel, 'lhe two tickets cave the number of the prize and the corresponding winning ticket. Each butt, drawn was leturned to the large barrel after its number had been noted, en that every ticket had a chance of winning more than one prize. The Mayor, in oj-emng the proceedings, said'that the art union had been instituted bv Dr. Kiddell with the object of providing funds for the education ot soldiers' children. Dr. Biddell, who had worked very energetically to make the scheme a success, vas not able to be present owing/to ill-health. Mr. Malcolm irnser: Government Statistician and Captain Mimro .fere present as ballot exuerts. Mr. Luke hoped that the ninds that had teen raised by means of i art union would be of great benefit to the Cl The el Hon. G. W. Kussell expressed his appreciation of the gooo. woik tnat hud been done in connection with the fund. He had gladly granted a permit for this art miion. Some people did not approve of the raising of money by such a method. If there were any such people m-esent he wtfi sure the committee would be ready to receive their direct contr buHons to the fund. The money that had ha ThellS «id he wished to .mention Wtf the efforts that, had been made U- Mr' Sidney Kirkealdie, chairman of rt M, ron jol!n te Myers was .elected a, the r «dience ? crut neer. Councillor M Kenzifl acted on behalf of the Town Co 1, who was to have been the other btiu"tu? drawing proceeded smoothly, but over two hours and a ha f the last prize had been drawn. U>e "i-t ttfe sxtbdraw, and the fourth pme a dozen draws later. 'The first prize ci 00 sheep was .drawn in the rmmd and went to ticket PGI2U. Jie WiTpHze went to ticket M91220.in the twenty-seventh round.. The last prize was drawn shortly .before 10.30 p.m. Theaudience by that time had thinned conwdeiaTh'e chairman of the committee (Mr. S. Kirkealdie)' announced through the Mayor at the close of the drawing hat the net proceeds were in the neighbowhood of mm. The funds .in hand, if misled for 30 years at 41 per cent., would be sufficient to provide the sum ot at east <£2600 annually for the next 20 years foi tlio purpose for which the art union was promoted. He believed this estimate will yet be exceeded. . Dr. Riddell, whose energy and enthusiasm had been largely responsible for the results achieved, had asked various patriotic societies and racing clubs to assist, and the replies had yet to be received in some cases. The activities of the committee would cense on the-payment of the proceeds to the trustees, who were MajorGeneral Sir Alfred Robin, Colonel Potter, and Dr.' Anderson (Director ot Education). The trustees - had agreed to act with a committee to be appointed to draw up a scheme for the allocation of scholarships to soldiers' children, and the conditions under which the scholarships would b* distributed. The committee wished to acknowledge the generosity of the donors of prizes and the valuable assistance thathad been given by lnaivy other people. ■ The numbers of the first five prize-win-ning'tickets are:— : First prize: P 61271. Second prize: N5139. ! . Third prize: M 91520. i Fourth prize: R73HI. i Fifth prize: A 5239. . , ! -V complete list of the 170 prize-wni- ! ning numbers is advertised in this issue.