SWEEPS AND LOTTERIES.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 48, 4 October 1884, Page 2

SWEEPS AND LOTTERIES.

1 TO THE EDITOE OF THK BTAH. Sib. — In the Wellington Evening Post of the 2yth ult., I find a letter on Sweeps; which touches on id ens of such general interest and importance, that I will ask for a space in your columns to deal with it still further. When the various candidates during tho general election were meeting their constituents', I was not a little astonished to observe that scarcely anybody brought it up tor" discussion, I refer io the Gaming and Lotteries Act now in force, and especially with reference to the illegality of sweeps and lotteries of any description. To my mind it s is a clog on the liberty of the subject : the.caus^--of robbing our colony of much. 'capital » of stopping local circulation of money ; and of withholding income frbni^tke Revenue. I will endeavor, to show that this is the case — Act or no Act. It is a well-known fact that people will, have a little mild excitement, and do speculate in spite of everything. The Act, forces them to do this by stealth and with a feeling of guilt and insecurity which induces them to send their money to other countries where such strictures are not in force. In this manner thousands of pounds have passed and still pass over the water to our Australian brethren, who no doubt are laughing in their sleeves over the'golden harvest gathered from the simple minded New Zeaianders. Why should it be thus ? Why cannot the Government follow the example of many old countries by "keeping the money in the family," and at the same time making a source of revenue of it? Why not legalize lotteries, &c, make the promoters pay for their privilege, and at the .same time secure the people from swindle or total loss by a proper surveillance? It has repeatedly come to my knowledge that artisans, artists, and persons of superior handicraft hare been prevented from exercising their talents because the superior products of their labor could be disposed of only in small quantities among the rich few, and that distressing circumstances often could have been alleviated in a family if friends had been allowed to join together and raffle off an article which was too expensive for one person to purchase. I maintain tUat lotteries of this kind would be productive of much good. The investment or loss of the individual would be trifling — the excitement mild and healthful. The Government would receive an easily gathered tax, local enterprise often assisted, and mouey circulated. On the whole, Sir, I take it that the Gaming and Lotteries Act, with respect to the points mentioned here, is a bondage that no free nation should suffer to be in force, and I only hope that my few remarks will be supported by the voices of many in a general protest against its future existence in the form we have it now — as an enslaving hydra of all social life. — I am, <fee , Ljbbbtt.