"Cattersall's" A Great Gaming organisation.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XVI, 19 April 1902, Page 740

"Cattersall's" A Great Gaming organisation.

The determination of the Federal Government to suppress TattersaU's sweeps has excited great interest throughout these colonies, where the organisation has done an enormous business. The following article by a well-known racing authority deals with the history of TattersaU's:—

It is an accepted belief that if betting- on horse racing were suppressed the turf would decline, and racing come to an end. Some of our staunchest advocates of the totalisa tor. who are seldom heard from tin til this automaton is threatened, ollieing attacked, have declared that racing in New Zealand without the totalisator would degenerate, and not be worth preserving, and they would have us believe that the very existence of racing depends upon the continuance of the use of the co-op-erative principle of doing business, for which the public pay so dearly. It used to be contended, too. in some quarters that Tattersail’s gigantic sweeps exercised a beneficial influence over racing in Australia, helping to swell the fields for particular events upon which they were run, as betting owners. and non-betting owners alike, kept their horses in such races in the hope of being laid a portion of the sweep money at a

longer price than the ring could afford to lay them, or of obtaining from some liberal-minded lucky investor a good stake to nothing. It could be shown that these big sweeps have sometimes had other than a healthy effect upon racing, but there is no gainsaying the fact that they have become very popular with a verv Targe section of the community at large. Those who take little or no interest in racing—indeed, thousands who have never witnessed a race in their lives, in this and our sister colonies, and. indeed, in other parts of the world have been in the habit of sending money to rattersail's for investment. It has never been suggested that the abolition of these sweeps would seriously cripple or injure racing. Ther» are reasons to suppose that we may se" the big races upon which sweeps were got up presenting smaller fields, divested to some extent of a lot of the rag-tag and bob-tail, who are merely entered and started in order that n chance of securing some of the sweep money mnv come the way of their nom'naters. At one time this sort of thin" was done to a mueb greater extent than in recent years, and Tnttersall must have made a lot of money in acting as agent for owners w’shing to back their horses and lucky investors seeking to lav off a portion of th'* money they stood to win. It would 1,0 interesting indeed, were the pub

lie enlightened as to the transactions that have taken place in the way

suggested. There have been eases in which owners of horses quoted as in much favour in the betting have wired to investors that unless they got a share of the sweep money laid to them their horses would not start. This is blackmail for which Tattersail’s agent or representative has not been responsible—indeed, the greatest confidence has been shown by all sorts and conditions of people in Tattersall’s methods of dealing with them. Many attempts have been made to shake the confidence of the people, but to little or no purpose, and TattersaU’s sweeps, like the great TattersaU’s in England, from which the name was taken, grew and became a great institution. .lust how long it is since sweeps, or consultatilons. were first drawn in the colonies the writer cannot say, but he has records of such being drawn in Melbourne in the early sixties. and it is probable that they were held quite thirty years ago in

a public way in New Zealand. They were quite common in leading towns in this colony for a number of years until the Legislature stepped in and put a stop Io them. Some of our sweep promoters were frauds, and scandals were many. Had they all been conducted by responsible persons they would have had a much longer lease of life, but about twenty years ago, or a little less (I am writing from memory), they ceased almost entirely, though a few small ones were run secretly for a timeNo very large ones were ever got up in this colony. There were too many consultationists in business, but Adam Bede, Bonks, and North (a Wellington barber. who did a bit of clean shaving at the finish), were amongst the leading sweep merchants. About the time that consultations were discontinued in New Zealand Mr Geo. Adams commenced his “TattersaU’s” sweeps in Sydney, and ran them there for about eight years, until “moved on” by Act of Parliament to Queensland, where he reigned for about four years, again being “moved on” to the tight little island. Tasmania, where, for about seven years, his gigantic business has been carried on without let or hindrance, so to speak, until the present time. It would be interesting to learn how much money from first to last Mr Adams and the other proprietors -:i "TattersaU’s” have handled of public money in all these years; how much money has been paid to the clerks and others employed in connection with the business, which for a greater portion of the time has supported, on an

average, some thirty office hands, often as many as seventy having been employed, while in the printing department connected with the business about twenty-five persons have been regularly engaged for years past. The liscontinuance of “Tattcrsall’s” means the throwing out of employment a very large number of workers, not only in the offices of the institution, hut in the post office in Tasmania, where between twenty and thirty thousand letters were received on an average weekly in connection with the sweep business. Occasionally as many as 80,000 letters would be sent out announcing results to subscribers. But a comparatively small percentage of the whole business could be done in Tasmania itself, while it has been stated that quite one-third of the. money invested for a long time had been received from outside the colonies. From Great Britain, America, Africa, India, Ceylon, China, Japan, New Caledonia. France, Germany, Sandwich Islands, Italy, Straits Settlement and other places letters addressed to Geo. Adams have come regularly. The revenue derived by the Tasmanian Government annually, directly and indirectly, through sheltering “Tattersall’s,” has been very considerable, and it was estimated that at least £25,000 annually was lost to the Queensland Government by the removal to Tasmania of “Tattersail’s” business, which has probably developed in the interval. The method of conducting the sweeps has often been described, and on the occasions of the drawings leading business people (sometimes the

Mayors of cities) have invariably been present, and the fairness and impartiality of the process has never been questioned by the many who have from time to time attended to witness the proceedings. Here it may not be out of place to describe the process. We will assume that the consultation is one upon which 50,000 tickets have been fully subscribed. At the time announced those subscribers who desire may attend, and they will see a barrel containing 50,000 marbles, having numbers from one to 50,000, placed in the centre of the large room used for the purpose. The barrel is set revolving in various ways, thus causing the mixing of the' marbles. A small lid in the side of the barrel is opened after a. few minutes of the mixing process, a subscriber named by those present, or an employee, dips a tubular gripper into the marbles and takes out one marble at a time, and places it in the hand of another subscriber, also selected by those present, usually a reliable citizen, who reads out the number aloud and hands it to the recording official, who also calls out the number and enters it on the register, and so on until the number of marbles corresponding with the number of horses have been exhausted. The numbers are checked, after which the marbles are returned to the barrel, which is set in motion, and the marbles thus again mixed, and the drawing for the next, class of eash prizes follows, until all have been drawn. For the drawing of the horses a smaller barrel is used, in

' . „ which marbles, each bearing the name of. a horse engaged in the race upon which the sweep is being drawn, are placed. 'Then a marble is drawn from the large barrel and the number called out, and the gentleman dips the gripper into the smaller barrel and out comes a marble with name of a horse on. This the gentleman reads aloud, and the number and horse are registered tigether. Thus the ticket holder may draw both the winner of the race as well as a cash prize. New Zealand has been a heavy contributor to Tattersall’s, but some if the subscribers from her dominions have reaped a golden harvest, probably equal to a just propirtion, according to the ordinary law of chance, which, of course, could be ascertained from the data kept by Tattersall’s. This does not follow, however, for luck is capricious. In addition to the many scores, if not hundreds of sweeps drawn by Tattersall’s, through the same institution the late Mr W. R. Wilson dispersed his famous St. Alban’s stud, which involved a different process in some respects from that ordinarily followed, but it was carried out in' the style and thoroughness for which Tatt.’s has become famed.