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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5076, 17 January 1927, Page 2

There was a very small yarding of cattle at the last, Turua sale, and little demand. Beef cows brought from £3 5s to 35, heavy bone; cows £2 15s to £3 10s, others 30s to 45s ; heavy bulls up to £4 10s, lighter bulls from 30s to £3.

The capture of the elusive bookmaker when peteuing his illegal occupation is an achievement occasionally attended by some diverting episode. A recent Dunedin occurrence was a case in pointy (reports an exchange). On receipt of certain information the police proceeded to the alleged “bookie’s” residence to get their man. Friends, however, had advised him by 'phone of the intended visit, and, having .no t,iine to escape, he, like Brer Rabbit, lay low inside the house. The arrival o'f the police almost coincided with the visit of a client of the “bookie," who was refused, through the keyhole, the chance of putting “ten bob” on his fancy for the Cup and warned to “get out of it.” A s the client hurriedly sought to obey the admonition he spied the guardians of the law just entering the gate and, with that “presence of mind which is superior to absence of body,” he seized a garden hoe that happened to be handy and began an energetic onslaught on the garden. In 'reply to the police inquiries he stated that the garden was his job, and that the whereabouts o’f the owner were immaterial to him, as he had been hired for the day. The bookie tells the sequel with great glee. “The ‘Johns’ sat down to wait for me, and stayed three hours, and poor old had to hoe the garden for dear life all that time. He made a dashed good job of it, too, and didn’t even get a chance to get a run for his money. He reckons, however, he’s due for ,a *rake-off’ some time.”