FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2282, 16 November 1889, Page 2

FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY.

The facility with which a separation is effected between fools and their money has passed into a proverb of venerable antiquity, and we propose to oite • very modern illustration which has the merits of being both now and true, and which may serve to point a moral, though the tale needs no adornment. A day or two ago a country resident called upon the editor and asked advice as to bow to proceed m a matter m which he had, or thought it possible that ho had, a pecuniary interost. Producing a sheet of foreign-post paper headed " Sydney Jctkey Turf Olub -Consultation on the Melbourne Oup," whereon were printed several columns of figures, purporting to bo tho n ambers of hundreds of lucky winners of sums of money of from £5 up to largo amounts, tho querist stated that his boy had invested m said consultation, but that he had forwarded his ticket to the consultationist, expecting to be advised of the result, that he had not kept any record of tho number of tho tickot, and wished to be advised as to bow ho was to ascertain what tho number of his ticket was, and whether it had drawn anything. He was a good deal taken aback when informed that the number of his ticket was not a matter of tho slightest consequence, and that it would inuko no difference whether he knew tho number or did not know it, inasmuch as tho whole thing was a fraud and a swindle from beginning to end. i He was told that thero is no such Olub as " Tho Sydney Jockey Turf Olub," nf thono awaopa iq | himself a " sweep," m tho elarg acceptation of tho word, who has been over and over again oxposed m tho papers of Now Zealand, but who, nevertheless, it would seem continues to sweep m the poundnotos of his victims, who rush like silly flies, year after year, to tho nets which this oonßuitationist* spider weaves for thier beguilemont. Tho interviewer wont away a sadder, and m one respect a wiser man. Let us hopo that he will prove by his future abstention from the risking of his money— rather tho throwing of it away — the truth of tho old saw " Once bit, twice shy." But tho fact that thoro aro still victims, probably many, m tho colony of this Sydney fraud induces us once more to call attention to the swindle, m tho hopo that our sodoing may bo tho means of saving some of our readers from tho folly of throwing their good money into tho lap of tho swindler. Some of them may perhaps havo been doing this year after year without buspeoting that they havo been defrauded. For tho Sydney Jockey Turf Olub man works tho dodgo with every appearance of good faith. Not only are programmes sent out annonnoing tho prices to be drawn, but after the date of tho supposed drawing (which of course never takes place), a printed sheet of the lucky i members is forwarded to each subscriber, who is thus persuaded that though he has been unlucky himself thero aro hundreds who havo mado their five, ton, fifteen, twenty, fifty or hundreds of pounds, and ho is thus induced to try again when the next programme is issued. Wo hopo that our contemporaries throughout tho colony will pass tho warning on, and that the fraud will be bo thoroughly and generally exposed that tho Sydney Jockey Turf Olub swindle will bo burst up so far as New Zealand is concerned. It would bo interesting to know how many thousands of pounds have been drawn out of tho pockets of New Zealand colonists during tho past few years by this particular fraud-r-wo aro afraid it must be a largo qraount, There is said to bo a stream of money amounting to at least £20,00Q a year pouring from this colony into tho coffers of consultationists m Melbourne and Sydney, and although moot of tho consultations aro, wo believe, honestly conducted— -therein differing very widely from tho Sydney Jockey Turf Olub affair— yet tho investment is an exceedingly bad ono, for of all tho thousands sent away only a vory small proportion can come back m prizes, whore tho odds against individual investors are hundreds, or thousands, to ono. But wo Buppoßo tliat people wiii go on risking a little m tho hopo of making a pilo at one stroke, and wo aro not sanguine enough to believe that anything wo can writo will prevent them so doing ; yet we do hope that the attention wo havo drawn to tho matter will at loant prevent eomo from committing tho doublo folly of staking their monoy against enormous odds, and placing tho stakes m tho hands of a swindler. Wo also cannot help expressing tho opinion that something ought to be done to punish this Sydney Jockey Turf Olub man, and effectually to prevent him from continuing hisoperations, {