“WE’RE RICH!”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26637, 6 December 1947, Page 6

“WE’RE RICH!”

£IO,OOO PRIZE OAMARU FAMILY’S WIN V TICKET BOUGHT ON WIFE’S BIRTHDAY “ Did you have a ticket in ‘ Tatts? ’" Mr Hector Joyce, of 127 Eden street, Oamaru, was asked by the North Otago representative of the Daily Times, as he got out of his car last evening. “ I believe I did,” Mr Joyce replied, guardedly. “Was the nom de plume ‘Mum’s Birthday ’? ” was the next question. “ I believe it was;” Mr Joyce answered, with equal caution. “Well, you have won the first prize of £10,000,” he was told. A chain of events had led up to this somewhat dramatic announcement. The Daily Times had been informed that ticket No. 103391, with the nom de plume ‘ Mum’s Birthday, Oamaru.’ had won the first prize of £IO.OOO in the seventy-fifth consultation. Search for Ticket-holder The news had not reached Oamaru, and the Daily Times representative there was set the task of seeking the identity of the lucky ticket-holder. There were six agents who sold tickets in Oamaru, and it was not until he had visited the sixth that he gained the information he sought. The ticket, he was told, had been bought by Mr Hector Joyce, of 127 Eden street. As he walked towards the address, he found Mr Joyce just returning from work at 6 o’clock. Although at first finding it difficult to believe his good fortune, Mr Joyce was soon convinced that he had really won £IO,OOO, and he rushed inside with the exciting news for his wife. “ Mum, we’re rich,” he shouted. “We’ve won £10,000!” Mrs Joyce received the news more calmly than her husband, and she took longer to be convinced that a hoax was not being perpetrated. After a full realisation of their good luck, Mi Joyce, ably assisted by his 15-year-old son. Hector, excitedly,spread the news among the neighbours. Then he returned to discuss again his great success. He confessed that he had had a premonition that he would win the prize, and Mrs Joyce recalled that her husband had said: “ I’m getting that prize, as I bought the ticket on your birthday.” “And, Mum, you’ve worked hard,” interposed Mr Joyce. “No one could deserve it more. I said you would have half, and we will go flfty-fifty.l’

Purchase of Ticket Both agreed that the prize was going to someone who needed 't and not to rich people. Mr Joyce is employed at Taverner’s butcher’s shop in Tees street, and Mrs Joyce looks after fowls on her small holding at Ardgowan. Both were emphatic that Mrs Joyce would give up keeping fowls, but Mr Joyce intends to go back to work on Monday as usual, for he feels he “ cannot let tiie boys down.” Later they intend to go to the North Island for a trip. - “It is a great thrill, I can tell you,” said Mrs Joyce in a telephone conversation with the Daily Times, Dunedin. “We have no plans for the future as yet. We have scarcely had time to think and to believe we are really rich.” Mr Joyce had more to say. He described how on November s—Guy Fawkes Day—he was working in the shop. He turned to his friend and remarked: “It is mum’s birthday today. and I think I will buy a ticket in ‘Tatt's.’ I will not say anything about it. I will just drive up to the house in a new car.” He bought the ticket, but he did not keep the secret. He had not bought a new car either, he said, for the first he knew of his success was when he encountered the Daily Times representative in search of Mr and Mrs Hector Joyce.

It is some years since a major prize in an overseas consultation has gone to North Otago. The last occasion that can be recalled is when a prize of £6OOO was won by four persons in Georgetown. A half-share in a £12,000 prize was won some years ago by an Oamaru man.