The post-war Commission on Gaming and Racing found little fault with the operation of the national lottery. On the contrary, it congratulated Neil McArthur on its organization (Bertie Hammond died suddenly in July 1947-during the Commission's hearings). It helped that Joe Heenan chaired the Commission. He and Hammond and McArthur had worked closely together over the past decade and they afforded each other mutual respect. The Commission, however, was unsympathetic to the concept of a state texas lottery; representations to run such a lottery included one from a sub-committee of the Labor Party Caucus (of which Bill Parry was a member), which advocated the running of an annual art union with substantial prizes and five shilling tickets. As a minor recompense for its rejection of state lotteries, the Commission recommended that total prize-money in the art union be raised from £5,000 to £7,000. When that eventuated in December 1952, it was the first increase for sixteen years. There was a further increase in prize-money to £10,000 in March 1955. Minister of Internal Affairs Sidney Smith explained that this increase was directly related to the 'strong' competition of overseas lotteries. But any comparison was one-sided since both Tattersalls and the Queensland lottery offered prize-money of up to £75,000, and New Zealanders were, by then, furnishing Australian state governments some 400,000 each year in lottery tax. The New Zealand art union continued to wallow in their wake. When its popularity did not increase following its modest rise in prize money, a 1956 government-appointed committee discussed the viability of 'special' art unions with a possible first prize of £20,000. But Sid Holland's Cabinet rejected the proposal as being too large and too radical.

By 1946 there was money to spare from lottery profits, which had risen in each of the previous three years. As the country moved into a period of peace and prosperity, the government reduced payments to the relief funds. Heenan suggested that the £80,000 surplus be spent in a completely new direction, one that was very close to his heart. Inspired by the success of the 1940 Centennial Exhibition and the government's willing support of the cultural celebrations that were part of it, he suggested three new funds: a £20,000 cultural and general arts fund to support the publication of books and 'other artistic efforts'; a £15,000 fund to enable New Zealanders to pursue artistic studies abroad; and a fund of £30,000 to supplement the Department's work on physical welfare and recreation. Parry was enthusiastic, as was Prime Minister Peter Fraser, also a keen supporter of the arts. A Cabinet committee meeting on 4 June 1946 endorsed all three funds, and the first grants were made in November. An early beneficiary was opera singer Inia Te Wiata, who, in February 1947, was given £5 a week for three years to take up a scholarship at London's prestigious Trinity College of Music.

Early in 1949 the three funds were amalgamated into one account, known as the Cultural Fund. By then 65 young New Zealand artists had been assisted to the United Kingdom for further study and performance. Some, like opera singers Te Wiata, Oscar Natzka and Bryan Drake, actors Bridget Armstrong, Pat Evison, Alice Kemp and Dorothy McKegg, poet Allen Curnow, conductor Oswald Cheese man and ballet dancer Bryan Ashbridge, went on to achieve national or international prominence in their chosen fields. In the same period £6,500 was allocated to art societies to fund three overseas scholarships (two awarded by the Association of New Zealand Art Societies and one by the National Art Gallery), building funds and a community art service; £1,700 to the New Zealand Drama Council for tutororganisers to teach throughout New Zealand; £3,000 to musical societies to assist choirs and orchestras to buy equipment and take part in competitions; and to the Alexander Turnbull Library £3,950 to buy books and to assist with the publication of books on art and history and £5,150 for historical research and the preservation of artefacts. Presbyterians protested, demanding that the bursaries be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. But their scruples cut no ice with Heenan, who pointed out to them that the Fund had always included racing taxes.

William Bodkin, National's Minister of Internal Affairs from November 1949, considered the Cultural Fund too expansive and instituted immediate change. Formal selection committees replaced the ad hoc arrangements favored by Heenan. These had the task of allocating annually five music bursaries, three drama bursaries and one ballet or dance bursary. Since artists and sculptors were considered to be amply supported by the three art societies' scholarships, they were no longer awarded bursaries. The work of the Cultural Fund became subject to tight budget controls.

About the Author

Early American Lotteries · The First Lottery · State Lotteries · Policy Shops. Copyscape. All Rights Reserved © LotteryFlorida.net 2005-2007. http://www.lottery-texas.net.