RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

SIMPLICITY

Some of the great modern novels have been written about the efforts of man to wrest a living from his contemporaries. The humble beginnings of a Texas oil millionaire —and associated problems—make particularly popular reading. And it’s really no joke, starting from nothing, and finding out, on the way, that it is not merely a matter of cigars, seduction and take-over bids. Even in Christchurch, on a much more humble and less flamboyant level than a Texan could ever know, there is a manufacturer who has not forgotten times when things

were not going so well. He is rather afraid of bills, because of the days when he had great difficulty in paying them. So he simply refuses to open any correspondence at all. However, he has a friend who is in such a state of perpetual impecuniosity that he understands the manufacturer’s feelings easily, and this man is called on, once a month, to open the mail. The helper has five boxes. In the first, he places invoices. In the second, receipts. In the third, the inevitable communications from the Labour Department, on

staff and working conditions. Orders go in the fourth box. The fifth box, of course, is very large, and very black, and holds the bills. The sorter is a kindly soul, and really sympathetic. He usually puts the worstlooking ones at the bottom. It is really a labour of love, with 300 or more tax envelopes to sort each time. Some of them are often telegrams, marked urgent, three weeks earlier. It all seems to work all right. Every now and then, all the boxes are sent to an accountant. The owner simply concentrates on production.