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Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 4 February 1880, Page 2

Reefton has long since established its ' reputation aa a very elysium for the sale of tickets in " monster sweepstakes." There is, we venture to

think, no place in the colony in proportion to population, which possesses such an insatiable appetite for this form of investment, and thongh the amount annually disbursed in this manner may not quite rival the drain which a year or bo ago was upon tie community for calls- in mining companies, it is nevertheless sufficiently heavy to take something of the form of a public evil, for if the same capital were applied to undertakings within the district, as in the absence of the sweeps, the bulk of it probably would be, or at all events confined to more legitimate channels, some solid good might be expected to accrue. The Legislature, however, has failed to impose a check upon this gambling spirit which has got firm possession of the population of the colony, and so long as the Government winks at the evil, it is but a natural consequence that it should grow rampant. As the failure of " The Lotteries Prevention Act " of last session to pass into law may be acccepted as a kind of State recognition of these sweeps, the question suggests itself whether the Government might not go a step further than this, and adopt the principle of the great Austro-Hungarian Loan Lot* teries at once. Government to be popular must reflect the wishes of the governed, and as the wishes of the population in this matter have been so distinctly pronounced, why not have Legislative sanction to something worth " going for "? We might commense by way of experiment with a •* Trial Festival " of say £500,000. in 500,000 tickets of £1 each. This would, of course, mean £1 per head for every man, woman, and child, in the colony, but there need be no fear as to the amount being subscribed. In fact, judging from past experience, we should say that two such events could be '* pulled off" annually without the slightest trouble. The capital subscribed could be distributed in say, £200000 for prizes, and the balance of £300,000, after paying the costs of the lottery, might be applied to the increase of the honorarium of Members of |he House, or any other less worthy object. There would be an element of soundness aud substantiality about the whole thin? from which there would ba no possible *'get away." New Zealand is already celebrated for the magnitude of a good many things besides it» debt and its loans, and why not then be equally celebrated for the magnitude and magnificence of its lotteries ?