IMMORALITY OF THE TURF.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 158, 16 February 1871, Page 7

IMMORALITY OF THE TURF.

" All sporting men, and not a few who know nothing of the turf, will remember," says the "Ballarat Courier," of 9th November, "a parson of the name of Ward, who hit the bookmakers so heavily last year at the Ballarat races. This worthy left England for England's good, a few months previously, bringing with him about £1,000 to invest in our betting market. He was at once taken in hand by the sharp section of the betting fraternity, and in a few weeks his money was gone. He was not, however, daunted by his ill hick, and told those who had won his money that*he would be even with them yet. And so he was, for by the Melbourne Cup of last year he won something like £4,000, to the great chagrin of those who had mistakingly taken him for a pigeon. Fortified with this capital, he invested largely in betting, and ultimately the tide turned against him, and he found himself liable for a large sum of money. The days of reckoning came, but not Ward. Quietly leaving the book marks to count up their losses or gains over the Ballarat races, he departed for Melbourne,' and sailed in the first ship for England, taking all his winnings with him, and omitting to pay his losses. Great was the indignation of those who where sold, and terrible were the threats they indulged in of what they would do to Ward if thay only caught him. But Ward was beyond the reach of their vengeance, and their was no one left who could tell them where he had gone to. Months have passed away since this occurrence, and Ward was well nigh forgotten. But by the arrival of the last mail steamer his presence in Victoria has been recalled by a letter from himself to one of the heaviest of his victims. In this letter he returns his thanks to the bookmakers of Victoria for the bets they paid him, and trusts that his sudden departure for England, leaving his own debts unpaid, has caused them no inconvenience. He then proceeds to describe the sharpers of Victoria as a commonplace lot of villains indeed ; rates them on their want of acuteness ; expresses his sorrow that nature has given him so vulgar a face, which he adds, prevented him from victimising them to double the amount, and finally that he is about to despatch two of the most accomplished swindlers in England to try conclusions with his friends on the Victorian turf. He concludes a long letter by expressing a hope that as the aforesaid two swindlers are very handsome and atf ible men they will be even more successful than he was during his trip, and return to England with nothing less than £10,000. This precious and impudent letter has, we need scarcely add, caused no small indignation amongst his victims. It has also afforded a great deal of amusement to those persons who have been favored with a perusal of it, but who, fortunately for their pockets, had not the honor of Mr Ward's acquaintance during his short sojourn on Victorian Soil,"