HONESTY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 7

HONESTY IN NEW ZEALAND.

£100 PAH> BT MISTAKE TWICE

MONEY BOTH TIMES RETURNED.

"Great Scot! £100!" exclaimed a taxidriver when, at the end of a day's work, he went to pay the attendant at a petrol service station for petrol he had just bought. "How on earth.— V and then he began to think. The upehot was that the next morning a surprised Australian visitor to New Zealand, Dr. A. J. Ross, received a visit at the house where lie is staying, at St. Heller's, from the taximan, and he was told how he had given £100 in mistake for his fare of £1. That was not the end of the unexpected for the Australian doctor. He was stopped in the street in the city by a shopkeeper with whom he had dealt the day before —last Monday—and was returned a second £100, which, he had given, in mistake for a £1 note.

-Mr. Laurie Meads, the taxi-driver, this morning explained the position. On the Monday night, he said, he had been hailed on his stand at the railway station by Dr. Ross. They arrived at St. Heller's about 7 o'clock, and it was quite dark. "You. had better come up on to the porch where there is a light burning," said his passenger. "I don't want to give you £5 instead of £1.

'"That's been done before," rejoined Mr. Meads, laughing. Dr. Ross pulled out one from a roll of notes in a handkerchief, about ten or a dozen, looked at it carefully under the coloured light, and gave it to Mr. Meads. He was then given the change for £1. Later in the evening Mr.. Meads pulled up at the service station, and it was there that he discovered the mistake. Hβ had to go to the wrestling the same night, and a most uncomfortable _ evenino- in the crowd it was for him, thinking that he might Use the £100 note. The nest day Mr. Meads went back te St. Helier'3, called on the doctor, and asked him if he had given the right fare. The doctor was positive in his affirmative, nor had he missed anything. "The only mistake I could have made,'" , he said, "was to give you £100.-"' "Preeiselv," returned Mr. Meads, and handed the astonished doctor the note.

Then Dr. Ross decided to go into town to see whether he had made any more £99 mistakes; and who should accost him in the street but the shopkeeper with whom he had had dealings the previous day. The result was the return, of a second £ 100. Both, men were rewarded for their honesty, and Dr. Ross remarked thankfully on the integrity of New Zealand people.