APPEAL COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 245, 16 April 1912, Page 5

APPEAL COURT.

A GAMING CASE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. A full court, Justices Williams, Denniston, Edwards, Cooper and Chapman, sat this morning to hear the case of the International Investment Company, Ltd., v. Andrews, an appeal from the decision of Dr. McArthur, convicting the appellant Company of an offence under section 41 of the Gaming Act, 1908. The offence consisted of selling to one Harold Peterson, on January 5, 1912, at Wellington, certain means, to wit, a premium bond issued by the Municipality of Paris, by which permission was given to the said Harold Peterson to have an interest in a scheme by which prizes of money were gained by a mode of chance. The appellant Comipany was fined £SO and ordered to pay costs. Sir John Findlay, K.C., and Mr. Hanna, of Auckland, appeared for the appellant, and the So-licitor-General for the respondent. Sir John Findlay read an article showing that between 700 and 800 millions of money had been raised on the Continent by means of premium bonds. This means of finance was looked upon with special favor in France and ißelgium, and also in Italy and Austria. He also referred to an article on the national debt in the ninth volume of the New Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition). Sir John cited authorities in support of the following propositions: That the scheme is not a lottery, merely because some part of it is determined by lot, and the benefits connected with it are made dependent on chance. If the element of chasce was merely auxiliary to the main object the scheme was not a lottery. It must be shown that the substantial object of the whole scheme must be a lottery, in order to bring it within the law. The Solicitor-General, in reply, contended that there was no such principle as that relied on by Sir J. Findlay, and cited authorities on the question. He submitted that, apart from a StarBowket't Scheme, every scheme is a lottery when an element of chance is inserted as an inducement to people to compete in the transaction. Argument was unfinished when the Court rose.