Sydney Spiv’S Raid

On The

Rich Placer Shares

NO wonder the stock exchanges value the shares of Placer De velopment, nominally worth a few shillings, at £2O Aus. Placer not only gets rich dividends from Bulolo Gold: it has a much bigger net income from its group of dredging enterprises in South America, while its lines of oil-wells in Texas and lead-zinc and tungsten mines in Canada, promise even greater profits.

No wonder the brokers were “easy marks” when Reginald Doyle, Syd ney’s spiv and con man, trotted around among them with large numbers of forged Placer share certificates. Placer scrip, unlike most bank-notes, is international— just as acceptable in America as in Australia. Exchange-starved over seas travellers —even god-fearing citizens of notorious probity—have been paying black-market prices for Placer.

Doyle seems to have negotiated over £70,000 worth of his forged Placers before some ultra-cautious soul carried his certificates to Placer’s Sydney office, and asked, could he please have them trans ferred to Canadian registry. Thus, the forgery was exposed, the Syd ney financiers shrieked in conster nation, and Doyle dived for “smoke,” just half a hop ahead of the entire detective force. For 10 days—before he came out of “smoke” and surrendered—the frantic newspapers made him front page news. If it had not been for the ultra-cautious soul, Doyle might have cashed his £500,000 worth of forgeries.

Hitherto, financiers have readily accepted well-known share scrip as collateral, with very little check ing, although it is much easier to forge than bank-notes. There will be a change now!

Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Rashleigh Winston, with their schoolgirl daughter, arrived in Sydney in January for a 10-weeks holiday.