The saying goes that life is a lottery, and in nineteenth century Sydney two men promised everyone a chance to win big.
In the early 189os Australia experienced a severe economic depression. Many banks and other financial institutions went bust. One casualty was the Mercantile Building Land Investment Company. In 1891, after several years of spectacular success, the doors of its impressive Sydney headquarters closed.
Monument to boom and bust!
The Mercantile Building, Land. and Investment Company, whose head office is at the corner of Park and Castlereagh streets, suspended payment today. The Directors explain that the recent collapse of other Building Societies caused such a run on deposits that further assistance had to be asked for from the City and National Bank, with whom the Company traded. This was granted to the extent of £6,000, but that only lasted a week. As further advances were refused, nothing was left but to close doors. (Evening Journal, Sept. 25 1891.)
The building at Park and Castlereagh Streets remained unsold, but in June 1893. George Henry Morris requested a four month option to purchase it on behalf of a syndicate. Forty Four year old Morris was an ex-bank manager, who had been dismissed from his previous position with the London Chartered Bank under a cloud.
Around the same time, Morris’s associate, 39 year old Robert Hope Atkinson, visited Premier George Dibbs and Attorney General Edmond Barton (later Prime Minister) seeking permission to operate a lottery. Atkinson had recently left his position as Manager of the Sydney branch of the Equitable Life Assurance Company. He was a Justice of the Peace, and considered quite respectable. The Equitable Life Assurance Company had recently been involved in a land lottery in Queensland, and Atkinson wanted to do a similar thing in NSW. He argued that in hard times this was a fair way to dispose of forfeited properties. It would have meant passing an act of parliament, as lotteries were then illegal in NSW.
Barton strongly disapproved of the proposal and said so. Atkinson claimed that Premier Dibbs told him there was no time left in the current session to change the law, but to ‘Fire ahead’ , and that if there was a penalty it would only be about five pounds. The Premier later denied saying any of this and a memorandum relating to the meeting could never be found. Whatever the case, Atkinson went ahead, renting a small office in the Imperial Arcade.
Sydney’s Imperial Arcade,
Atkinson and Morris hired a couple of clerks and had thousands of handbills and pamphlets printed. They also placed newspaper advertisements such as the one below. There were 140,000 tickets at £1 each. Each ticket offered 14 chances for a prize; over 3,400 of them. Properties of all kinds in Sydney and its surrounds were included.
The liquidators of the Mercantile Building, Land and Investment Company were shocked to see that the building on the corner of Park and Castlereagh Street was being offered as first Prize. There was even an illustration of the building in the lottery advertisements. It had definitely not been sold, and George Morris’s option had expired. They protested, insisting they had no connection with the lottery whatsoever. The Inspector pf Police was informed in August, but no action was taken.
The first published warning that the lottery was suspicious appeared on December 1 1893, in a Victorian paper called Table Talk. Nevertheless, the lottery was drawn at the Imperial Arcade on January 12 1894. A few hours before the draw took place, George Morris hurried to the Land Deposit Bank and put a deposit of £250 on a parcel of cheap properties valued at £500. Ninety two were blocks in the Hawkesbury area. most worth five shillings each. That was the closest he and Atkinson came to having anything to offer ticket holders.
Viewed in the best possible light, Atkinson and Morris may have originally thought they would sell hundreds of thousands of tickets, purchase the Mercantile building and provide the first prize they promised.
As it turned out, only £2,000 was received in ticket sales, so the prizes were dramatically reduced in value. A £500 prize became £50 and lower amounts were reduced on a pro rata basis. Even so. winners complained that they did not receive anything at all. It was this that led police to take action in March. They raided the office at the Imperial Arcade and found a desk, a single chair, and piles of tickets and advertising leaflets.
Robert Hope Atkinson was arrested at the Prestigious Hotel Australia, and Morris in Phillip Street.
Robert Atkinson was enjoying the high life when he was arrested.
Lotteries were colloquially known as ‘Little Goes’ and combined with a play on Atkinson’s name, it gave the Bathurst Advocate an opportunity for some humour;
During the subsequent trial, printer John Scott testified that he had produced 100,000 circulars showing the image of the Mercantile Building on them as first prize. Only £40 of the £160 he was owed had been paid.
Atkinson produced a number of character witnesses, including several members of parliament . He insisted that he made no money from the scheme and spent every penny received on advertising etc. This was disputed, and as principal in the affair he was sentenced to 12 months hard labour in Darlinghurst Gaol. It must have been a terrible time for his wife Euphemia, whose first child had been born on May 16 1893, just as her husband began to organize the lottery.
George Henry Morris received a slightly lower sentence of 9 months.
The Booby Prize….A Spell in Darlinghurst Gaol.
It appears there was some campaigning on Atkinson’s behalf by his influential friends in parliament. He was released from gaol on January 31 1895, a reduction of four months. In reply to a question during a debate two months later the Colonial Secretary said, ‘…there were reasons for supposing that he had not put the money of the subscribers into his own pocket, but had spent it in endeavoring to make the lottery a success. It was also thought that the eight months he had served was a sufficient penalty.’ (Bathurst Free Press, Mar. 15 1895.) Another comment was that Atkinson’s continued imprisonment would destroy confidence in such ventures. This seems rather odd considering they were illegal!
Atkinson moved to Montreal Canada after his release, and that is where he died circa 1905. His wife and two children returned to Sydney. The son born in May 1893 was killed in France during WWI.
NOTE – Lotteries did not become legal in New South Wales until an act was passed in 1930. However, the first land lottery took place in 1848/9, to help dispose of forfeited properties following the collapse of The Bank of Australia. Authorities chose to ignore the fact that it was technically illegal, because there was really no other solution. It was very successful.😎 You can read about it HERE
