STATE LOTTERIES

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1933, Page 7

STATE LOTTERIES

DISCUSSION IN AUSTRALIA. NEW SOUTH WALES PRIZES. SYDNEY, August 26. The New South Wales Government will not abolish the State lottery. The majority of Ministers and members of the MiniV'.eria 1 parties consider that, in the existing circumstances, it cannot be abolished. They contend that it is impossible t 3 finance the hospitals without the additional revenue. The only alternative to the lottery, they point ’out, ig additional taxation. As the Government has promised to reduce taxatioif, this method of raising revenue is not open to' them. A section, of the Ministerial parties, says TEe Sydney Morning Herald, may urge the Government to adopt the policy of making the State lottery more attractive.. This, they say, can be done by introducing oil occasions £1 tickets and by increasing the first prize to £25,000. on similar lines to the Queensland lottery. During the past few months there has been a serious falling off in the revenue from the State lottery, doubtless because large sums o' money are being sent weekly .from New South Wales to Queensland for investment iji the lottery in that State.

ASSISTANCE TO HOSPITALS.

The Minister of Health, Mr Weaver, has pointed out on a number of occasions that last financial year the Government received from the . lottery £BOO,OOO. For every 5s 3d invested by the public the hospitals receive a little less than 2s for maintenance purposes,” The hospitals are costing the Government nearly £BOO,OOO a year to maintain. The Government b’s also advanced £395,000 out of the unemployed relief fund for the construction, extension and improvements of hospitals. Mr 'Colvin, who recently succeeded Mr iWhiddon as State lottery director, wag only appointed bv the Government for a period of three months. It was learned in Ministerial circles recently that at the expiration of that period Mr Colvin’s term will be extended.. The future of the State lottery, and the Government’s policy, will be considered (by the Cabinet at an early date.

“If the opponents of the lottery concentrate on expending that surplus energy °f theirs, in trying to eradicate evils in our midst instead of bombarding with deputation,? the officials of the harmless little lottery,, they would be doing the country a service.” said the. Rev. Father Mark (Triton in a recent address to the men’s branch of , the Newcastle Sacred Heart Confraternity.

REFERENCE TO RACECOURSES

“To be consistent, the people who 'are endeavouring to stop the lottery must also close all the racecourses in New South Wales, and forbid all games of errds, where there is even a 'half-penny at stake. If this state of affairs comes about, you can imagine what kind of a place New South Wales will be to live in. I can visualise a tremendous migration to other .States, end those who are left will soon get tired of their morbid existence.”

Father Carlton said that while the ■wrangling aibou't the State lottery was going on. Queensland was laughing at New South Wales, and hoping • the lottery in New 'South Wales would be stooped, Queensland hospitals would flourish and expand, while those of New South Wales would go into decay for Rmk of funds. The lottery wa s the poor man’s chance of winning money.

The man of means could go out to the racecourse, pay entrance fees and make hi s bet, said Father Carlton. He was delighted that up to date the people who bad won the lottery mostly needed the money badly. He opposed anybody who was going to "" take the lottery from such people qnd'-from-.the hospitals which needed ' it--■*«s>• badly. The lottery wrs taxation- by painless extraction, and it was performing a magnificent service to the country.

SUPPORT FROM THE MINISTER. The Minister of Health. Mr Weaver, in reply to criticisms of the lottery, gays:—“l have yet to learn that the citizens of Victoria, South Australia and .Western Australia are more religious, more -honest, move moral, or more trustworthy because there is not a lottery in those States, than are the people of New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, where there i t ? a lottery.

“It is complained that the lottery is an inducement to gamble. As an exaggerated illustration it might also bo alleged that the growing of fruit trees is an incentive to make small iboys steal, or - the lay-by system in our drapery .stores is an incentive to people ,vho cannot afford the money to place a deposit on goods of high quality, the purchase of which in many instances thev cannot complete. “Suppose that we ban food, beca" e it is alleged tha,;. half the human beings destroy their health by their diet : should we prohibit insurance -because it open*? up an e-venue for some people to commit arson t 0 draw insurance money?”