SURPRISE PACKET" SALES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 303, 20 December 1917, Page 2

SURPRISE PACKET" SALES.

BRIXG iS,OOO FOR KED CROSS. , !N~o greater success could have attended the linal effort made by the Auckland commercial travellers and warehousemen in aid oi the Ked Cross fund yesterday, when the. sale of "surprise packets;'" realised the handsome total of tbout f5.0.00. It says, a great deal" for the organisation of the effort that by noon 125,000 packets had been sold, anil soon after the whole of the, coupons were sought up. Admirable arrangements, na4e by the executive, enabled citizens ;o buy packets and get their parcels -with i minimum of delay and trouble, about 100 vendors of packets being employed. The demand for- packete in the suburbs ivas much, greater than anticipated, ivhile the country orders, which were lealt with on the. mail order principle, ibsorbed 10,000 coupons. During the ifternoon the coupons were at a premium, and vendors were offered 2/G for single 1/ packets. The sellers were jn.itructed, however, not to accept <jiny more than the proper price. The shed on the wharf where the parcels and goods won were distributed was kept open to-day, when large numbers of people from the suburbs and the country «aine to claim their prizes.