SOMETHING LIKE CONSCIENCE MONEY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13110, 8 May 1908, Page 7

SOMETHING LIKE CONSCIENCE MONEY.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has receiveTf £360 in gold from a person whose identity lias not yet been discovered (writes P.T.0.). The money arrived at the Treasury in a tin box by post, and was accompanied by a note, signed "X.X.X.," explaining that the £360 was conscience money. Year by year contributions from penitent people throughout the country flow into the Exchequer's conscience fund. There is a great deal of variety in the character of the transgressions. Onewoman, some time ago, sent a single penny stamp, explaining that she had defrauded the Government of that amount of. postage five years previously. In marked contrast was a draft for £200 sent to the Treasury by an Englishman living abroad. Another conscience-striken subject, who had defrauded'tho , Government of £85 in his income tax return, forwarded the amount in bank notes with this letter: —"The Chancellor of the Exchequer.-— Dear Sir, —I am sending you herewith £85, which ia to go to the use of tie Government. I will send rnoro soon, until I have repaid fourfold, in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures. Tho way of the transgressor is hard; no one knows how I have suffered for my wrong, and I will seek to make a bountiful restoration. May God pardon, while his Majesty's Government is benefited." Perhaps the largest amount of conscience money in one sum that has been recorded is the cheque for £2845, which was sent by tho Vicar of St. Giles', Cripplegate, to the United States Secretary of the Treasury some years ago, with the- explanation that the sum was entrusted to him by a person who declined to disclose his identity, but who said that he had come into possession of that amount by defrauding tho United States Government.

RESULT OF THE MOTOR CYCLE

RELIABILITY TRIAL (OPEN CLASS*

The motor cycle trial to Rakaia Gorge, via Rakaia, returning via Hororata, resulted, as was to be expected, in a sweeping victory for the all-British Triumph motor cycle in the open class. The distance was 130 miles, and tho course was specially selected to test the reliability of tho motors. Twenty miles of the road was unformed, with numerous unbridged water races, with the steep cutting coming out of the Rakaia Gorge.

S R. Stedman. 3i h.p. Triumph Ist F. Ho-warth, 3i h.p. Triumph ... 2nd G. B. Brown, 3£ h.p. Triumph ... 3rd Further proof of the reliability of tho Triumph motor is evidenced by S. R. Stedman riding the sarao machine in the trial on which ho beat the express between Dunedin and Christchurch in the actual riding time of 8 hours 57 minutes. Trmmpb motors aro undoubtedly the best and are British-made throughout. Wβ can deliver them from stock. Sole agents, Adams. Ltd., 138 and 110 High street Christchurch. 6