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SECTION 2.—ART UNIONS AND INTERNAL LOTTERIES 385. Surprisingly little in the way of submissions or evidence was given before us during our sittings on the question of art unions or lotteries. Apart from a few isolated references, there was no general demand for the establishment of a State lottery as that term is generally understood. Messrs. W. Stuart Wilson and F. Cassin, however, submitted a proposal, to which reference will be made later, for the establishment of a scheme of investment bonds with bonuses which, in its essence, is a lottery. 386. The term " art union " is to-day used in a much wider or looser sense than the sense in which it is employed in the Gaming Act itself. The art union proper as defined in section 46 of the Gaming Act exists only to a very limited extent in New Zealand, being confined to a few academies or societies of fine arts. What has generally become known as the art union is the disposal by lottery or chance, pursuant to a licence from the Minister of Internal Affairs, of the articles mentioned in section 42 of the Act. The principal submission and evidence before us relating to this section came from Father C. H. Seymour, of the Roman Catholic Church, during our sittings at Napier. He urged that the section be extended to enable the Minister of Internal Affairs to grant raffle or art-union licences to cover practically any articles at all where the objects to benefit from the profits of the raffle are educational or recreational in character. 387. During the first World War and again in World War II special authority was granted to the Minister of Internal Affairs to enable any real or personal property to be disposed of by raffle or chance in aid of patriotic purposes. Whether or not this special authority should be widened in its scope and given a permanent peacetime application by an amendment of section 42 is a question to which we have given some consideration. Such an amendment would make legal a fairly widespread existing practice by which all kinds of small raffles are held for all kinds of articles. The objects are nearly always charitable. The holding of such raffles are no doubt due to a projection of wartime conceptions of legality. The term "or other work of art " in the context " any painting, drawing, sculpture, or other work of art " has been given, in practice, over the years, a fairly generous interpretation, but it would seem that even so there are many articles not coming even within the extended scope of the term which those promoting raffles or art unions frequently desire to include as prizes. 388. The discussion of art unions was provoked by a challenge addressed by Dr. Mazengarb on-behalf of the associated Churches to the so-called alluvial gold £5,000 art unions which are conducted at approximately five-weekly intervals under licence from the Minister of Internal Affairs. The associated Churches take the view that these