NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1920, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

MR PONZI’S INVESTORS. NEW YORK, Aug. 17. Tho financial bubble blown by Mr Charles Ponzi, the “gct-rich-quick wizard,” which enclosed the hopes of thousands of Boston’s small wage-earn-ers ana which has fascinated the entire country for a fortnight, burst completely when the little Italian yesterday surrendered just in time to prevent his arrest. It is said that .the completed audit of Ponzi’s affairs will show a- deficit of at least £600,000. It is estimated that during the past six months he received from investors nearly .£2,500,000 and that in the fortnight since the run on his band began he paid out about £l,500,000, his securities and other assets amounting to perhaps £BOO,OOO. The statement by the federal auditor that Ponzi’s accounts would show a deficit resulted in scenes almost approaching riot in the streets of South Boston last night. In his district live hundreds of Poles, Italians, Greeks, and Lithuanians who had entrusted their savings to him; in some cases they had borrowed money to profit by his offer of 50 per cent, interest for 90 days loans. Ponzi was arrested at first on a charge of using the mails to defraud. Later he was released on £5,000 hail. He was immediately rearrested on three charges of larceny; £2,000 additional bail was demanded, and after some delay, was forthcoming from one of Ponzi’s friends. THE PRINCE’S BILL. HOBART (Tasmania) Aug. 16. Tasmania has been electrified by the bill for the Prince of Wales’s visit. Mr Quigley, proprietor of the Brisbane Hotel, Launceston, has charged die State £1,500' for the Prince’s entertainment of half a day and a night. The ordinary tariff there is £1 Is a day. The Labourites, attacking the Government in a want-of-confidence motion on another matter, described the hotel bill as murderous. Industrial circles are furious and allege that the bill will pay for the freehold of the hotel. BATTLE WITH BATS. LONDON, August 17. Bats three months ago made their nests under the bathroom floor at Woodlands, Reigate, Surrey, the home of Mrs, Kate Davison. They found the hot water pipes very comfortable and' multiplied rapidly. . Last week they began to appear in the bathroom in large numbers as soon as darkness fell. The floor boards were removed and two maids volunteered to exterminate the pests. Entering the room with sticks they laid about them vigorously, but had to retire beaten. Then the chauffeur was fetched. He broke the window and many of the bats escaped, but when he had done 75 others lay dead on the floor. PLENTY OF. WHISKY IN U,S. NEW YORK, August 17. A renewal of the bitter “Wet” an! “Dry” fight is foreshadowed in the announcement that the Federal Prohibition .agents have resodved to ask Congress to destroy 50,600,000 gallons of whisky and other spirits still in bond. Otherwise says Mr Kramer, the Prohibi tion Commissioner, prohibition is impossible. It is easy, particularly, in .the big towns to get drink—at a price. The situation was cleverly and funnily summed up by a New York evening paper the other day which said: “Booze is becoming very scarce. Last week we met three men who had not got any.” Almost every day one reads of largo quantities of bonded liquor being stolen when in transit from one warhouse to another. The value of liquor thus stolen last week was £IOO,OOO. BABY CHOKED BY SPEED. LONDON, Aug. 17. Medical evidence was given at a Llanwarne (Herefordshire) inquest that the 3-months-old baby of Mr John Lewis, an engineer, of Goodrich, died from suffocation, the result of being driven in a motor-car. The air pressure caused by the speed of the car ,although moderate, produced dislocation of the baby’s respiratory' organs. The jury, which included four women, returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.