SHORT PASTRY in the PUZZLE PIE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 18, 27 October 1939, Page 13

SHORT PASTRY in the PUZZLE PIE

Competitions May Contain Many Traps For The Gullible

edification of all who read it and the probable mortification of all who ignore it. The facts were secured during a survey of puzzles and competitions which might have been used by The Listener. They concern the hundreds, in fact the thousands, of New Zealanders whose hobby it is to waste their time over get-rich-quick puzzles which really are get-poor-quicker puzzles. i he story is published for the possible The Picture Puzzle The picture-puzzle provides the most glaring example of the downright racketeering to which the gullible can be subjected by competition organisers. On the principle of simple hieroglyphics, a dozen pictures are printed in a square — or more, or fewer. They symbolise words or letters. The whole makes a story. Very often it is possible to run a quick eye over them and jot down a ready answer. A second glance shows that "crowd" might be "mob," or "spectators," or "gathering," or any one

of twenty other synonyms. Several of the pictures may be capable of these varying interpretations -- but not too many, in case the entrants become suspicious. A rough survey in current publications gave The Listener an average of four synonyms in six pictures. It could easily have been higher. In one competition of this type therefore, by simply multiplying up on six four times, there could be 1296 different solutions. That is, six to the fourth degree, or six multiplied by six, three times. Immense labour would be required of any entrant working to discover and record the maximum number of solutions, and so secure the maximum number of chances of winning. Only luck could really decide the winner. Apart from the element of chance, when chance can so easily run into these astonishing figures, there is the element of dishonesty. One New Zealand town, which may or may not deserve its reputation for being gullible, gave asylum to a competition trickster not long ago. The man’s "inside" knowledge of prisons was at least as great as it was of

competitions, and his chief assistant was a woman who was among the prizewinners, They handled thousands of entries, announced. numerous results, offered big prizes, collected many entry fees. Before investigations showed that not one of the persons listed as winners existed at all they had left (1) New Zealand, (2) no address, and (3) a lot of unpaid mewspaper advertising accounts.

Crosswords Crossword puzzles once survived a legal examination and were pronounced games of skill; but, as far as we know, no New Zealand publication now takes the risk of offering them for competition with prizes. On the same principle as picture puzzles with "alternatives," crosswords can be capable of hundreds or thousands of different solutions. Perhaps a prize of £50 is offered. Entrants pay a fee of 6d for each answer submitted. Most will find in their puzzle that in one place they may choose between two or more words that. fit. Short words in isolated posi-

tions provide the best examples of this, "Very well," they say. "We'll send in three extra entries. It’s only 1/6d." Enough entries come in to keep a clerical staff frantically busy for days and nights sorting them out. It will be no trouble for eager New Zealanders to spend up to £5000 in one week on only one of the many competitions offered. Their money will pay over and over again for the competition expenses or the cost of the advertising which the competition is intended to give some firm or commodity. But not one of those enthusiastic entrants can hope that his entry will be judged as a skilful effort. An actual check on crosswords and alternatives has shown that the number of chances can often run well into four figures. The judge can take no cognisance of alternatives. There is one answer. Some of the entrants may strike it. The rest are unlucky, and have spent their money to no purpose. Most newspapers selling space for competitions hold the prize money and a sealed solution as stakes and dissociate them-

selves from the work in all other respects. They cannot, however, know the full facts of every competition run through their columns, and sometimes do not realise, as one private investigator discovered recently, that the published addresses of the winners do not always coincide with the existence of actual persons, It is possible to design a competition which will be a fair test for the skill and knowledge of everyone, and The Listener does not suggest that by any means all competitions are swindles; but this brief statement of the facts may encourage New Zealanders to exercise in the future a little more discrimination than in the past.