HOARDED MONEY

Shannon News, 2 November 1926, Page 2

HOARDED MONEY

STRANGE HIDING PLACES. DISCOVERIES IN AUCKLAND. Hoards for money are still found in many oi' the old houses of Auckland, and very often little explanation j can be got. as to how the money wascollected. , Recently the son of an old sea captain who was connected with Auckland in its very earliest days passed away, after his memory had completely, failed. Hfc had always maintained that there was a considerable sum of money about the place, i but could not give any distinct ac- j count of how it had been accumulated, except that it was part of his father's money, and he could not say where it was. Sure enough, after the old man's death, the evidence was found that in an old-fashioned box a j considerable sum of money, amounting to. about £SOO, had been stored.' What had become of it or who had extracted it was,.,now a problem that would probably never be solved. Probably the old box had been the i family bank over half a century ago J or more, and the memory of it may still have lingered inan obscure way in the old man's mind. More recently, an old couple, who j are nonagenarians, had to be shifted I from the old home where they had practically resided the whole of their long married lifie. The old couple often complained that they had lived too long, and people in their district did all they, could to help them, by supplying them with many of fhe necessities of life. After their departure a general clean-up of the place was made, but there seemed to be very little of much valuie. The-fur-niture was old, and everything- seemed very much worn out. An old tin box which seemed of little value, but which it was thought advisable to open before it Avas thrown on the lumber heap, was foundfto contain a considerable sum of money which had quite escaped the memory of the pair, and here, in the midst of all their poverty, were some hundreds of pounds, which would haVe supplied a'U their wants for a good few years. They could not remember even having stored it away.

Not long ago an old bachelor whose end was very near, who had formerlylived in a Southern district, wrote to a friend of his to go to an old house where there was a" vinery in the back corner of the section and ask permission to remove some boards which had been securely nailed down, just at the /entrance, for use as a step. Under the board he would find a bigtobacco box, such as was used to pack cut tobacco in, and probably he would find some money there, as it was where l.he put money witli which to pay his life insurance premium. He could not if he had cleared the box of its contents when he left. Sure enough, when the box was found there, was not only enough to pay an insurance premium, but a good deal more.; In fact, an amount /hich simply astonished the old bachelor An old Greek who was a great frequenter of l-acecourseg and loved to come to town to put his money on the tote was often asked what he did with his money and avowed that he buried it in. the ground near his wharo at the seaside not a great many Ji-iles from Auckland., After his death the whole of his garden w r as dug over and not the trace of a penny piece found, but tied in an old towel stuffed away in the rafters was found enough to bury the old man decently, but no further hoard was found, although -tinny old hands think the garden has not been dug deeply enough and tha.t there is still treasure, buried there.