COMBINE IN CRIME.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9021, 7 January 1908, Page 7

COMBINE IN CRIME.

The sensational discovery has been made (says the "Sydney Daily Telegraph") that there exists something in the nature of an inter-State organisation of gamblers, confidence men, and other criminal men which may yet become a serious menace to society. Apparently there arfi no jg recognised headquarters of the com- ® bine or trust, and no board of directors appears to have been elected; still it is nevertheless a fact that the numerous gangs of "spielers" are bound together by a description of freemasqnry or bond of sympathy, and that communications by telegraph and post are constantly passing between the leaders in the different States of the Commonwealth. Each gang of confidence men consists of from four to five members, and there are many hundreds of these gangs spread throughout the Commonwealth. A daily meeting of those located in Sydney is held in the forenoon in the vicinity of the Museum, usually within Hyde Tark, and; needl9ss to say, there is always a deiaehment of plain-clothes police on watch. There is nothing in these littje gathery ings which would arouse the attention r of the passer-by. The men arj well attired and apparently prosperous citizens, and they quietly conduit their business. The object of the meeting is to exchange information with regard to likely "marks," and to allot the duties of each gang, and of each member of each gang. Operations are conducted on business-like methods, and there is active co-opera-tion among all the fraternity.