VARIED BUSINESS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 362, 25 October 1932, Page 2

VARIED BUSINESS

NAVAL COMMANDER TURNS HIS HAND TO TRADE. A THOUSAND JOBS. If you want to buy or sell anything from dogs' teeth to priceless jewels — ask Commander Farrell, the man with a thousand johs. In the heart of the West End of London he deals all the year round in the very stuff of romance. No matter what transaction you want carried out, Commander Farrell will handle it, provided, of course, it is straight and above-board. He represents two or three Governments and a number of Indian States, buying all sorts of articles for them on the London markets. This quiet, blue-eyed man, with a range of knowledge it woulcl be hard to equal, was out of a job— so he proceeded to create a thousand jobs for himself. Always a traveller, he now has the thrill of vicarious wandering through his world-wide clientele. At the moment he is engaged on the manufacture of a table from a piece of hippopotamus hide, so hard that it has been soaked in water for two years to soften it enough to cut.

A Line in Dog's Teeth. "English people living abroad have all kinds of difficulties to put up with if they want to buy anything from England," he said to a representative of the Sunday Dispatch, "so I thought it would he a good idea to help in overcoming these difficulties. I started this business." He buys tons of dogs' teeth regularly. They are sold to traders in the Fiji Islands and are used for barter. The teeth are afterwards used as currency among the natives. There was an Indian nobleman who wanted some hracelets. Staying in London, he continually sent telephone mes- , sages to Commander Farrell over a period of about four months, saying that he wanted to see jewellery. A bracelet of no intrinsic value was bought. Then visits were paid to Amsterdam in order to search for rare stones. These were procured — and the nobleman ordered six bracclets to be made in imitation of the cheap one — but with rare stones inset. The hracelets were worth more than £3000 each.