A "HOUSE" PUZZLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1936, Page 6

A "HOUSE" PUZZLE.

When Dr. 0. A. Morrison, Liberal National M.l\ for the Scottish Universities, puzzled the House of recently with his poser about the shoemaker aiul the counterfeit note, he thought that was the end of the matter. He was wrong. A special correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" says the litrje problem has produced: Forty letters from all over Great Britain; inquiries from several European countries; speculation in foreign newspapers; and an earnest letter from a Berlin doctor. .It has also shattered the political illusions of at least one English schoolboy. The problem itself was simple: A man bou'iht a Mi/ pair of boots with a £1 note. The shoemaker got change front a butcher and gave the customer the boots and 4/ change. I hen the butcher found tin? note was counterfeit and the shoemaker had to give iiim a genuine one. How much did he !o*e. Answer: | The shoes and 4/. And that, it seemed at the time, was that. Instead, Cabinet .Ministers discussed it heatedly, and a Jotirtio.l member of the Treasury bench got It wrong. So many letters have reached Dr. Morrison that he has reserved a special compartment in his dispatch case for them, and the accuracy of the answer lie. gave Juts been gravely questioned. _ Sir. W. Gallaeher, the only Communist in the House, complained bitterly that l.e 1 act been accused rf giving the w, answer. He was alleged to have replied Mi/, ! when in fact he was derid'nrx t lie answer Si veil by a neighbour on Lit'" back benches. ".My son will throw me ;.t' r . of Parliament if he thinks 1 pave the wrong answer," lie [said dismally, "f knew it. and a lot more, when f was a schoolboy." Mure than half of Dr. Morrison's correspondents gave the correct .answer, but one Ingenious mathematician declared that the shoemaker lost not only the boots and 4/, but the profit he would have made if lie had sold the boots for cash. Among other? who wrote was a ■ schoolboy, who said: "I solved the problem in one minute. I always thought M.P.'s were clever." His solution was correct. A German doctor wrote from Berlin giving the correct answer, askin"' Dr. Morrison to tell him if he was right, and enclosing an international postal order for reply. * j