EXTRACTS. ANOTHER LOTTERY SCHEME. (From the Sydney Herald, January 22.)

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 288, 3 March 1849, Page 3

EXTRACTS. ANOTHER LOTTERY SCHEME. (From the Sydney Herald, January 22.)

The result — to the prupnctury — of the late bank of Australia lottery, seems to have had the same effect upon them as, according to some naturalists, the taste of human blood has upon animals of prey. The agreeable reco'lertion sharpens the appetite /or more. A lottery, liowt'v< r, once and away, and under i lie ppuiliar cucunWancri which piccuricd ami accompanidl the one which Ims just gone off, m>iy be just endured, and uas only just endured by us, for we ncithci praised nor censuicd; but the attempt at an

pneore we would summaiily stop. When we read tlic ndreriiipin«iit of tlu- intended forthcoming nlTair, and the nourish übout the fine properties just out of the meshes of equity, (a sort of apology apparently for theii not being put into the late wheel) we could not but exclaim, " something too much of this." We felt that we had helped the lame Bank over the stile, and to some purpose, as the thousands upjn thousandss of our Hastinged and Fitz Royed, fellow-citizens can ruefully testify ; bnt we were and still are at a loss to discover, why a whole community are to be stimulated into a spirit of gambling, because a Banking Propiii taiy have not otherwise a good market for tht»i properties. The question is one purely and peculiarly of public policy, and as such, and only so, shall we d fcuss it. Lotteries cannot hut demoralize the people engaged in them. Should it even be gnmtcd that they somewhat benefit one or fwo, it is certain th<it they injuic thousands. Even the units who gain tho piizes(as the few acceptable things in (he wheel are called), ate nenhaps seldom the better for the suddenly acquired which not having been obtained by laboui, will not be guided by discretion. But if the miserab y few gainers were in every instance rendered perfectly happy, what set off is this against the thousands upon thousands of poor people who have made shipwreck of their little all, with the object of getting, what? a thirty-thousand pjund piizd? or a piopeily that will support its winner without labonr? Oh, no. But a house, and probably a disputed title, or a few hundied acres of land only, and ten or eleven thousand oliunce^ to one !.' against even tint. It is tins astonishing, and almost universal propensity in the rational animal man, to act rather upon ihs exceedingly remote possibility of gain than upon the very stiong piobability of loss, a propensity much less under oontiol among the poor and illiterite, than among the educated classes, that reconciles us to the English law, which prohibits lotteries altogether. Where this possibility of gain fascinates, more than the probability of loss deters, a legislatuie is justifiul i in saving men from themselves; in Keeping them beforehand in that position to which they would generally be so gladly restored after the event. How many thousands of pin chasers of four pound tick' ts now regret that the Equitable Plan or Partition could not be {if it could not be) stopped under the Englmh Lotteiy Act? How many aic there— uyc. «nd among tho more intelligent of the ganiblors~wliom we have heard, in all the unieasoning disgU3t of Hastings or Filz-Roy freeholder, pronounce the whole aflair as " a do," a'though they always knew, or ouijlit to have known, that Ikcif could only get anything worth having at the expense ot thousands of lla-stiiig'ec«, and FilzroyaU and that the chances were thousands to one against the holder, of any particular ticket. It is not, however, for such a3 those that we speak. It is rather for the l.ibouier who lives by the sweat of his brow, that we would give, this timely warning. Ten thousand pounds were, we havu been informed, dnwnout of the Saving's Bank, for the put chase of tick u ts on the lust occasion. Nuiscs, servant girls, itockinen, parsons, old women, school-masters, all were louclud. Arrears of wages, in many instances, were cauied away to Mr. Lyons, and other tempting dispensers of tl c deir bits of ruin, and with whit result ? 1 el'e 1 ' those who witnessed the drawing answer. Who that saw them can ever forget, the rows upon rows of anxious pinch .Hjre of tickets, male and female, u ho da ly and all day long, crowded in the pit and boxes of the City T.jcaire? Who can ever fin get the eager looks, tire patient and sustained lisl'iiing lo the unn uncement of the numbers of the ti;kets as dip.vn, the uncompromising suppression of an occasional child— ten p\en crying inldiits in nrms w£ie tarried by their amiable motheib4o the lottery — the haul breathing, and tlie excitement amongst the shoes, wu ncvci something considered a prize was drawn, the almost audible groan of an old woman, when a Fitz Roy fell to her, as she wa* led out (hy her friends) almost below the reviving leaoh of nobblers," and abovi all. Ihe universal agitation when No. I. prize was proclaimed as drawn, on agitation which plainly expressed how wide the result was of each person';) calculations for himself, all these ciicumstances nmiked the extent to which the working chsscs are apt lo be diverted from their ordinary useful pursuits, by the " ignis fa uus" of a lottery prize. Very nearly three days' labour lost, their money gone, disgust at themselves and •very body else — as af er a debauch, alone icmaining ; lucky if the inclination to save is not altogether taken avv.iy, by this unlooked for misfoitunr. We aie not to 6uppo«e that even the intended forthcoming lottery wou'd be the last, by very many ; perhaps if it were, we might be inclined to let ie past*, but individual proprietor of this very Bank of Australia (we have heard it whispered) contemplate getting off" their unpaleable properties in the same way, if they can only make the working daises bite. But for these fertile gentlemen we shall be on the look out. They had better pause before they tempt their poorm fellow-citizens to beggar themselves and to distress their families, in order that the speculative Mr. A. or Mi. B. may get out of debt, by means of public contributions from the poor and credulous. We shall probably aoon meet again, upon the same subject.