Post your articles online and promote your website for free! Boost your sites ranking by linking it from the ArticleZap database! Free Article directory and instant translation publishing!
In the years before, the Labour government had turned down proposals from city councils in Hamilton, Invercargill and Wellington to run lotteries to fund civic amenities. Henry May feared a flood of such applications and was not prepared to see money diverted away from the state-run lotteries. But within weeks of his appointment, Highet was prepared to sanction substantial lotteries for large municipalities. Whangarei and Timaru had already successfully run smaller lotteries to raise money for recreational projects; a third at Tokoroa helped to rebuild a sports stadium that had burnt to the ground.
Wellington’s mayor Michael Fowler wanted a large lottery to fund the building of his city’s new $7 million town hall. Highet was keen but there was Cabinet opposition, and Fowler’s application foundered. Politicians were wary of large lotteries, in part because their success was not guaranteed. They had some justification. In June 1975, for example, thousands of ticket holders had lost their money, and their chance to win prizes totalling $250,000, when a Christchurch-based national raffle to raise funds for sporting bodies collapsed. A lottery run for the New Zealand Rowing Association also failed to raise enough money to send their team on a warmup trip to North America before the world championships. In October 1978 Highet expressed his hope that local authorities should be able to conduct lotteries to finance community facilities. To criticism that this was fobbing off government’s responsibility for providing finance for local government, he responded that lotteries were only ‘the icing on the cake’.
Highet made slow progress with his colleagues, partly because Kiddle’s national lottery was expanding so quickly. It was not until November 1980 that Cabinet allowed him to authorise the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) to run a $500,000 lottery to fund the building of a new grandstand at the Mount Smart Stadium for the proposed 1990 Commonwealth Games. Prizes exceeded sioo,ooo in value, including cars and caravans, making it the largest lottery of its type in New Zealand, to date. Wellington’s Michael Fowler cried foul, understandably, as his town hall lottery project had been persistently denied for four years. Other critics implied parochial bias as Highet was the member for Remuera. But he explained, somewhat disingenuously, that the Auckland lottery was a ‘test’ which would be run not by the regional authority, but by a trust formed for the purpose. He also promised to monitor its effects on the Golden Kiwi.
The lottery’s 50,000 tickets went on sale on i December, the same day as the beginning of a new Golden Kiwi. Lee Murdoch, the ARA chairman, had faith that ‘sports- conscious’ Aucklanders would support the enterprise despite the sic ticket cost. His confidence was well placed.
Business was brisk from the beginning. By 9 December 30,000 tickets had been sold, 12,000 on the last day. Murdoch sought permission to run four Mount Smart lotteries over the next twelve months. Highet granted one, on condition that 90 percent of the tickets had to be sold before it could be drawn. There was fierce competition, not only from a glut of local lotteries and raffles at the time but also from a special si million sports lottery run by Kiddle with the primary aim of boosting New Zealand soccer’s World Cup campaign to Spain.
Cars, video recorders and automatic cameras were among the major prizes in the second Mount Smart lottery, which ran for a fortnight in October 1981. But a second direct clash with the Golden Kiwi incensed Murdoch. He considered his date had been set first and accused Kiddle of deliberately attempting to swamp his lottery.
Kiddle denied that the date clash was anything other than coincidence, but he did warn all his agents that they might lose their licences if they sold Mount Smart tickets as well. Some tobacconists criticised this as scare tactics, but Kiddle was adamant that an agent could not serve two commercial masters. In reality, few tried. Kiddie saw himself as at a disadvantage in that he had not been allowed to run ‘object-based’ lotteries of the Mount Smart type, where money was raised for a specific purpose. (The sports lottery had been an exception.) Aucklanders identified with Mount Smart: that the city was to host the Commonwealth Games was a source of parochial pride.
There were three further Mount Smart lotteries. But returns were disappointing; a total of $400,000 was raised and each was beset with difficulties. In the first, both agents and the Department of Internal Affairs complained of sloppy organisation in the issue and receipt of tickets. The penultimate lottery was handicapped by debate over the cost of the new grandstand which made marketing a struggle. Ticket sales fell far short of the 90 percent required. The last lottery, held in May 1982, fared even worse, selling barely 6o,ooo tickets even after a week’s extension. Moreover, there was a shortfall of $9,855 in the audited accounts. This sum had been stolen by an employee who then mortgaged his house to cover the shortfall. Although it was known that the man had previous convictions for theft and had been drinking and gambling heavily, police were not called. During the lottery he had worked as a clerk, ticket-seller and banker.
This scandal destroyed the credibility of the Mount Smart lottery and effectively ended large-scale civic lotteries in New Zealand. Highet refused the Auckland Regional Authority’s two further lottery applications, Murdoch’s disappointment being compounded by worry that funding for the Mount Smart grandstand might dry up. (It did not; the stand was built.) Kiddle, meantime, had been having more success with the national lottery; this was partly due to 1977 changes in the law precipitated by the success of a Tattersalls lottery with a si million first prize to raise money for a gold museum in Ballarat. The 1977 legislation tightened the criteria under which overseas lotteries were allowed to be run in New Zealand and, for the first time, allowed for the running of local soo,ooo and si million ‘super-lotteries’. The former would be held four times a year while the latter would be held occasionally, in support of a specific project. Warwick KiddIe was back in favour with Allan Highet.
This change, which Kiddle had sought for years, marked the beginning of an exciting era. The first $5oo,ooo lottery, in November 1977, sold out within a week despite the sio ticket cost. Queues, not seen since the early days of the Mammoth, lined the streets, and Kiddle received constant requests for more tickets. Half-million dollar lotteries were held monthly until March 1978, and the ‘Pot 0’ Gold’ si million lotteries also attracted enthusiastic punters. When Auckland tobacconist Graham Sharp arrived at his Albert Street shop on the morning one of these opened he found a queue o metres long. ‘I nearly turned around and went home,’ he remembered. But he fought his way into his shop, brought out the coveted tickets and had sold them all in half an hour. His experience was typical. In April 1978 Highet announced an extended 250,000-ticket lottery with five sioo,ooo prizes in addition to the $500,000 first prize, and a new name— ‘ Plus ‘.
