BURIED TREASURE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3272, 4 June 1943, Page 3

BURIED TREASURE

TINNED FOOD HIDDEN CASE DUG UP AGAIN PREPARATION FOR JAPANESE Over a year ago a New Plymouth family buried a hoard of tinned food as a store against an attack by the Japanese. They have now dug it up again. The family decided that they should be prepared. Like everyone else they dug a trench, but they decided that a hoard of food might also be valuable in such an emergency. So they gathered together about £5 worth of tinned food,, and I to make sure that it woul dkeep they I set to work and dipped the tins in paraffin wax. They filled airtight jars and tins, which they soldered down, with tea, sugar, rice, oatmeal and jam, and added them to the collection. Then, well satisfied, they packed it all in a wooden box, dug a hole in th garden and covered their secret firmly with soil. Nothing Happened The months passed and the Japanese did not come. Tinned food became scarce. Still nothing happened, and some of the food in their buried hoard was becoming more and more a luxury on the market. At last they could hold out no longer and they wen tout into the garden with a large spade and dug up their treasure. With excitement the case was prized open. The food in the airtight jars was as good as ever and some of the small tins were still intact. But with the majority of tins, particularly the larger ones, the damp and the soil had done their work. Labels had rotted away and the rust had penetrated in small holes, destroying the “treasure” inside.