GOODS BY LOTTERY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5319, 29 August 1928, Page 1

GOODS BY LOTTERY.

A DRAPER PROSECUTED. PARCELS OF UNKNOWN GOODS. Mr. J. S- Barton, S.M., delivered judgment last week at Wanganui against Charles Henry Bold, a drape,n. charged under the Gaming Act with disposing of sixpenny packets of drapery done up and tied in parcels. The prosecution held that such posal was by chance or lottery. Packets were made up from Old stock and new stock,. an,d a customer could select, which one he or. she desired from a number;. Each box was stated to be worth more than sixpence. The magistrate considered that the allocation of that stock amongst purchasers was left to pure chance, ofr neither purchaser nor salesman could' or did know what was in the box. It made no on this point that each box contained good value, and that tlie customer, was willing to ha.zar.d the chance. The allocation Q r dlvis'on of the property .sold was left to cihancc, and that factor was, in, hi s opinion, decisive on the matter. It had been, submitted that the scheme was analagcus l to the selling o.f closed packets of sweets. Sweets were wrapped up for convenience in transit, handling:, and sale, and for convenient description and advertisement of th e contents. According to well established trade customs such wrapped packets were recognised and familiar units for. sale an|d purchase, and .when a buyer asked fog: a packet of sweets he knew within, reasonably close limits what he was buying. On the other han'd, it is not usual to -“ell drapery in closed packets. A box of “drapery” as such is not a recognised un.it in trade, and a scheme, that might give a bushmail handkerchiefs or sox or corset fitments oj: baby linen bore little resemblance to the sale of sweets in. packet’s. Tlie magistrate found in favour of tlie prosecution.