A BAND OF BROTHERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2833, 25 June 1895, Page 3

A BAND OF BROTHERS.

The cases brought by Hollia and Sons and by Greener, the famous gunmakers, against the Abrahamses, a firm of pawnbrokers in Melbourne for stamping guns with their brands, has resulted in a criminal prosecution of the three brothers Abrahams. Both Hollis and Greeuer got verdicts civilly. The exposures were so bad that the Crown took action, and the three brothers are now on trial in the Police Court for conspiracy to defraud the public. The evidence) discloses as extraordinary a story of business fraud and deliberate cheating as has ever been told in the colonies. Hollis and Sons are represented iu Melbourne by a Mr Kemp. Becoming suspicious that the Abrahamses were engaged in some swindle, he set himself determinedly to get at the bottom of it. After a while he learned enough to justify him in taking a decided step. Going to an up-country town he arranged with a countryman to come to Melbourne and buy a gun at Abrahamses. The customer asked for a Hollis gun. It was soon produced, stamped " Hollis." But the customer declared he had seen oue with a friend stamped " Hollis and Sons," and if he could not get one the same he must go elsewhere. There was no difficulty. A " Hollis aud Sons " gun was also produced. The customer bonght it aud he took it straight to Mr Kemp's office. To make assurance doubly sure, Mr Kemp carried out this transaction in duplicate. Being secretary of the Hardware Association he obtained better billets for some of the Abrahamses' workmeu, and now they are the principal witnesses in the case. The guns were cheap Belgian articles, probably worth £1 or 30s. When they were stamped as Hollis, Ureoner, Richards, Mantou, or what not, they were worth £5, £lO, £l6, or perhaps £2O. It all depended on the character of the customer. If he looked soft, the brothers had slang Hebrew words by which they advised the server " to slap it ou," and if he looked an individual who knew the value of thiugs or who liked a close bargain they had terms to suggest a reduction of price. "When business was brisk," says oue of the witnesses, "we sometimes stamped as many as 10 guns a day. Iu the boom time I suppose we stamped 500 or 600 guns a year." Just fancy the way the shekels rolled in to this enterprising band of brothers ! When the gun trade got slack, as the result of the Hollis and Greener discoveries, the brothers hit upon the idea of going into tents, for the West Australia rush. And they did a roaring trade at cheaper rates than anyone else in the line. But, so the evidence alleges, they were able to achieve this result by another system of marking, under which 6xß blossomed out into 8 x 10, and 8 x 10 int j 10 x 12. Naturally the price went up accordingly. If the buyer went off to Western Australia they probably hearu no more of him. If he remained about Melbourne long enough to find out the discrepancy in size, he came bick for an explanation. The three voluble Jews would surround him, protest he had got the size he asked for, that a mistake was uuheard of, and so forth; and the individual would be glad to beat a retreat. But oue day a persistent fellow came who threatened the police. The Abrahams rose to the occasion. They sent for the poUce themselves, had th* man arrested for attempted blackmailing, and prosecuted him at the police court, where, happily, he got off. It would certaiuly appear from the evidence now given that this was a case iu which the tent swindle had been worked. It seems very likely that the Abrahams brothers will be committed for trial.