ART UNIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4979, 26 May 1926, Page 2

ART UNIONS.

SUGGESTION TO LEGALISE!. PRESENT METHODS CRITICISED. The Oamaru suggestion that the Government should legalise lotteries was bound to come, sponer or later, for there is eimply no limit to the variety of bodies that have discovered that they need a big raffle to put them on their.'feet. It can safely be said that the earlier art unions had j a fair claim on public support. In one or two ca.ses: sports bodies turned ■to.wards apt upions; as a means of tiding them over financial liabilities that were certainly not undertaken with one eye on an art union; but since then the raffle, has been greatly overdone, and it seems to have reached the limit in the case of Oamaru, where the trotting and raping clubs exploited the idea for funds which it is fail’ tp suggest .they were.already in a position to obtain through other gambling channels*. But it is only fair to point out tha,t if the Government should legalise lotteries it would see that the public got a, “better deal” than the Oamaru people were prepared to give them. Of £48,000 raised ‘for the Oamaru raffle the public were handed bapk a mere £4OOO, apd £24,000 wasi dissipated in expenses. If the Governments ever' proposed to legalise such lotteries—which would be most undesirable in every w,ay—there would certainly be a provision that the promoters should receive only a small' percentage of the gross receipts—say, 10 per cent — so that the prizes, in the case of Oamaru, would be £43,200, instead of £4ooo.—Christccurch Star.