Swindlers and Dupes.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 667, 3 October 1891, Page 3

Swindlers and Dupes.

[PHOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Sydney, September 7. The affairs of the Australian Mercantile Loan and Guarantee Company were again Ventilated at a meeting of shareholders and depositors held yesterday. They prove to be even worse than bad been feared. Almost the only solid item in the balance.sbeet which bad been prepared for a previous meet* M to be the £126,000 odd owing to StyHHdrL Ting money; eppurs to have

scattered to the four winds of heaven, for there is hardly any'hing to show for it io the i way of valuable securiues or convertible r assets. The liability of shareholders in respect of uncalled capital is mainly mythical. I The bona fide and responsible shareholders are merely a drop in the bucket. In addition 1 to these there are a few dupes and a great many dummies, but by far the greater pro portion of the shares alleged to have been taken up appear to have been mere shufflings with the company’s own money—or, to speak more accurately, with that of its unhappy depositors. The exposure that has been made shows the marks of a gross and unscrupulous swindle, but with all our volumes of complicated law it is very questionb e whether there is one which could be relied upon to punish the perpetrators of such a crime as appears to be disclosed by these-revelations Yet the depredations of a Kelly gang or of a pickpocket are mild and harmless compared with the filching of hundreds of thousands f't pounds belonging to the industrious and thrifty. In a slate of affairs like this, when some of the most glaring crimes go unwhipt of justice, our legislative wisdom wastes its time fruitlessly wrangling about “ one man one vote ” or in attempting to prevent the industriously inclined from working more than eight hours a day ! Possibly, however, their idea is that by preventing people from working they may be prevented from saving money, and thus may be relieved of the danger<of being robbed. Even if, however, it were possible to sheet home the due reward of their misdeeds to those who may be shown to have made false representations in order to obtain the money of the public, it must be remembered that no legislation can protect people from their own folly. As long as a man believes that it is possible to get something for

nothing, to get ten per cent, say, for money that is only worth five, and lives in the expectation that some day he will meet a philanthropist who will help him to attain his desire, he is liable to become the prey of any one who chooses to pose as the philanthropist aforesaid, man who declares he will rob all the rest of the world to secure exorbitant returns, but will be the soul of honor to his confiding clients. In nine cases out of ten it is the tacit hope of being successful accomplices, or sleeping partners in a legalised swindle, that delivers the fool into the hands of the rogue, The law may punish the latter, and ought to punish him whenever he can be detected, but the breed will never be stamped out as long as the false ideas which furnish him with prey are allowed to flourish unchecked. There are persons who believe they can put their money into building companies and draw 25 per cent, without trouble and without risk. There are men outside lunatic asylums, women too, maids, wives, and widows, who think that by taking shares in some gorgoeusly advertised mine, or backing the right horse in a sweep, they are to be suddenly lifted into wealth They are caught by their own cupidity, and without this factor all the cunning schemes which catch them would be powerless.