Letters to the editor: Why not share the total Lotto prize money every week?

Lotto's top prize of $34 million could have been shared out as 10,000 prizes of $3400 or 3400 prizes of $10,000 in this time of Covid-19 crisis, a reader writes.

I cringed when I realised the latest big prize in Lotto was $34 million.

Right now, nobody should be able to win so much in the form of a single prize. When workers are about to lose their jobs, and families are stretched to their financial limits, the Government could be a lot kinder where it counts.

Why not share the total Lotto prize money every week? Offer sensible prizes which would still be attractive enough for ticket buyers, for instance: tier one - $5000, tier two - $7500 and tier three - $10,000.

Any of those prizes could help families for two to four. The prize of $34m could have been shared out as 10,000 prizes of $3400 or 3400 prizes of $10,000.

Imagine what a difference that would make for families. I feel that many people might support this idea and it could make Lotto even more popular.

Morally, it needs to be introduced asap to help families survive the impact of Covid-19. Later, when the virus has disappeared, Lotto as we know it can simply be reset and returned to its current format.

If you like this idea please ask your MP to support it.

Russell McKenzie
Tauranga

We lived, and we were much happier

Many youngsters don't seem to me to be happy these days. From about the 1960s dissatisfaction is evident among the young and I think I know why - they have too much.

Kids I grew up with had hardly anything - first, a bike then if you saved hard and managed to get an after-school job a fourth- or fifth-hand motorbike.

The telephone was the one on the corner - if you could find one that worked - and if you whispered you used the one at home.

I was 21 before my first car - a 1930 Model A. Before that I walked or used the bus on dates. No computer, the choice of clothes? Black or brown or grey.

The cinema is where we took dates, and when you had the money, the pub.

Travel? Yep, join the military or emigrate (as I did) or hitchhike to another county.

And yet we were very happy. We enjoyed what little life we had, we helped the parents and did the chores.

We had several good friends and we dated local girls. We enjoyed each other's company, often spending hours just talking or listening to the radio or reading, and we wrote letters to each other and pen-friends overseas.

We lived, and we were much happier.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Cheques still needed

I agree with Jim Adams (Letters, August 6) about cheques.

I have paid for everything by cheque for years.

Recently, I have had some things on direct debit but there are some things I really need a cheque for.

Why are the banks going to do away with cheques?

Val Barry
Mount Maunganui

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