THE IRREPRESSIBLE “SWEEP”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8737, 20 May 1914, Page 6

THE IRREPRESSIBLE “SWEEP”

It was announced in a recent cable message that inquiries had revealed an extraordinary development of the “sweep” business in England, which affords “another proof of the extreme difficulty of coping by law with a primary human instinct which loads men to gamble in one way or other.” "We quote from tho Sydney “Daily Telegraph,’’ which throws some light on tho details of this “sweep” development in England. It appears that there are in England some twenty English offices in the “sweep” trade. 'i hey employ over a hundred and fifty clerks, and they do a huge business. Tho measure of this may be gauged by the fact that some days as many as 30,000 letters are despatched. That they keep tho gambling pot boiling goes without saying. Wo may add a reference to the municipal lotteries of France, Italy, and Corn; any, which find their hundreds of thousands of English patrons all dreaming complacently of the possibility of growing suddenly rich enough to abandon work and take to travel, amusement, and more gambling. These enterprising crowds are reinforced by the battalions of patrons of tho numerous '. Indian “sweeps” which have, some of them, their headquarters in England. One of those indeed is one of the biggest concerns of the kind in the world, and o-no and all, they flourish in tho teeth of the law, the dear, delightful, consistent law, which, as in all Englishspeaking countries, regards racing- as the legitimate “sport of kings.” Needless to say, we have similar experience in these southern countries. The “sweep” has been driven to an apparently precarious refuge in Tasmania, and everywhere the Post Office is closed to its transactions. Yet every Year countless thousands put then money in countless Tattersalls, and the lucky ones never fail to reap the offered fruits. Every year there is the same mad race of lawmakers and lawbreakers for the illegal spoil. Otar Sydney contemporary tries to draw tho moral. “Until it is possible to stop a bolting horse, tho best thing is to guide it along the line of least danger.” No attempt is made to draw tho said line, or to show the possibility of preventing the runaways from smashing themselves. But that only completes the exposition of the great difficulty presented by this great subject.