NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2677, 29 December 1923, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

' Following (lie dentil of Mr. Clement John Coffin, an rionmonger. of Ellesmere, Shropshire, an inventory was made of the contents of his shop. Those engaged on the work discovered £I,OOO in gold hidden in mailbags and £3,000 in hanlcnoies and Treasury notes in tea caddies. Mr Coffin’s only companion for many years, Mr Ernest Griffiths, is the sole inheritor. He had no idea of his good fortune. “Very many of the Maoris on the East Coast,” remarked the Hon. R. Bollard (Minister of Internal Affairs) “are men totally different from those in one or two other parts of New Zealand where Maoris n hound, for they work and work hard. Some of the crops they produce on the coast are very fine, and equal to the best grown anywhere on land worked by Europeans.” Mr Bollard added that a spirit of industry had seized the native's on the East Coast, and if was a very good sign, not only for the natives themselves, but for the whole Dominion.

“Just imagine he is offering you and you want to deal with him.” said Mr Justice Frazer to a young girl in the Arbitration Court, Auckland, when her counsel, Mr Singer, asked her to show her inability to .use her hand as a result of an accident for which she was claiming compensation. The girl was given an ebony ruler and then it was that His Honour told her to grip it as if she “meant business” against her counsel. The girl was unable to make a firm grip, and subsequently a number of medical witnesses, who were in conflict in their evidence, were grouped around the witness box. examining and testing the injured hand. Incidentally, it was suggested that her recovery would ho expedited if she had her teeth attended to. In giving his decision, His' Honour said that medical science nowadays 1 raced, a number of ailments to the condition of' people’s teeth. Somnambulists' sometimes- in their semi-wakeful state have strange hiding-places, and the long, arm of coincidence perforins strange freaks. Some six months ago a cheque drawn on a Napier bank was lost, and no trace of if could be discovered, so another cheque was.,subsequently issued and Jhe 'payment of the original cheque was stopped. A considerable lime after the cheque had been paid the recipient- moved to another district. Neeently the person now occupying the same residence required a small quantity of schnapps for medicinal purposes and took a small daik coloured pint bottle found in au outhouse, washed it, and had the .schnapps put in. it. When he was pouring out. the liquid it was discovered that the bottle contained a paper of some sort, which, however, could not be extracted until the bottle was smashed. Then the missing cheque came to light, but the paper instead of having a pink-linled background with the name of Ihe bank' repented many times over, was now completely while, with the name of the hank printed in black, and with the name of the drawer, amount and date all plainly readable. The coincidence lies in the fact that the finder of the cheque was in the employ of the person who drew it, and it thus found its way back to whence it was issued.