SWEEPS, AND SWEEP PROMOTERS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 163, 27 October 1883, Page 3

SWEEPS, AND SWEEP PROMOTERS.

The Melbourne Herald has exposed twelve sweeps and commended three. The swindling sweeps includft the " Orient," " Australasia," " Bonanza," " The Melbourne Turf Club," " Achilles," " Victory," " Albion," " Maraquifca," " Diamond," " Melbourne Sweep Co. (Limited)," " Victorian Consultation Company," and " Progress." The grounds of condemnation are mainly the antecedents of the promoters, and the bare or impossible margin for profit if everything were conducted honourably. The "Orient" consultation is said to have taken a new departure, having special reference to New Zealand, for we read in a postscript to the tenth article that " since the appearance of this series of articles three out of the ten frauds whom I have exposed have discontinued advertising, and " put the shutters up," realising, I presume, that the game is played out. On the other hand, Fraud No. 1(" Orient ") is dying hard, and is, I am informed, going in more extensively than ever for advertising by means of circulars, &c. In New Zealand, which colony he left under a cloud a couple of years back (he wasn't known as " Orient" then), he has circulated a prospectus in the Maori language, setting forth in glowing terms the immense amount of business he is doing, and the fortunes which have been made by investing in his sweep. The Maori would probably be the last individual who would strike my readers as being likely to invest largely in sweeps ; but as a matter of fact the natives of the Northern Island are — like Chinamen — very speculative ; indeed, some of them own racehorses and betheavilv."