BREAKING A PAKAPOO BANK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 12

BREAKING A PAKAPOO BANK.

RUSE IN THE CHINESE QUARTER. j "FOREIGN DEVIL" SECURES £250. (From Ova Own Cobebsbondekt.) WELLINGTON, Mareb 10. The Post gives details of how a European by strategy managed to break a. ""pakapoo bank in the local Chinese quarter (Hainingf street). It saye: "The vigilance of tho Wellington police has moved the pakapoo promoters to get off the gamble with 'quickness and despatch,' and instead of | waiting until all the tickets are in, the i lottery is drawn while the tickets are ia i course of collection from the agents. | "Pakapoo is as simple in its management ; as fan-tan, which a child could understands i A pad&age from the writings of Confucius—* the Analects, it is believed — is 6elected* and this extract contains 80 characters. Tioketa corresponding to these characters, to the number of 20 each, are put into four bowls. Then four tickets are prepared, each one corresponding to one of the The number first drawn eonfesponding to one of tho ' bowls designates the bowl from which tha lucky numbers or characters are to bo' drawn, the other bowls being put aeide. -' "A bowl was drawn on the night- in question, and out of it 10 characters were drawn. By this time the collector of the bank was on his way to bring in the tickets sold by the agents. Being as methodical as Chinese are, he called at the agents in his regular way, Ah Kit's tickets being' collected before Cho Ming's in geographical sequence. ■ "When he returned he brought back a ticket which had nine of ih<k 10 lucky characters marked off, and the stakes were so high that the amount due to the drawer was over £250. How was it done? The Chinese bankers could not fathom the mystery. " Then a looker-on at the bank reminded them that when the drawing was over there was a shower of stones on the roof of the bank, which all at once recalled, but the incident passed without much notice. Later the European came for hid prize and was compromised with £250. It was all the bank could raise for the moment, and the European said he would not wait for the odd money — the bank could hare it. " Subsequently it was learned that the lucky man had been concealed in between the rafters of the roof when the drawing was going on, and as the characters were drawn so he marked off his ticket, making a mistake in one character only. The ticket was passed out to a confederate, who cycled off as feat as he could to an outlaying agent's before the bank's collector arrived. The volley of stones thrown on the roof wa« a rnae to cover the 6py's retreat, and that is the story of the breaks ing of the Saining street pakapoo bank."