RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32458, 19 November 1970, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

Some people seem born to small or large misfortune; a few have the knack of coming out of the most depressing situation without depreciating their wealth, health or happiness. Take the case of the accountant from Christchurch who went to a distant branch of his firm’s empire, well over 100 miles away from the home base. One of his tasks there was to go through, with the local manager, the firm’s bad debts in the area, to see whether there was any possibility of reducing them. One item he noticed was for a motor mower bought by a resident of the area from the Christchurch shop. He was told the purchaser had come to Christchurch, ordered the

mower, and it had been sent to his distant address. There, the purchaser seemed to proclaim, the transaction was at an end. There hadn’t been any payments, although efforts had been made, gently, to get some started. The auditor type said that the debtor should be approached. The local representative stoutly insisted that the approach should come from the town office, because they had sold the machine. Besides, he had to live with the local residents and didn’t want to be involved in anything even hinting at the hounding of them. The auditor agreed, and so the thing was set in train. The debtor was advised that if payment was not made, the mower

would be re-possessed. And so, ultimately, it was. It came back to Christchurch, and was sent to the firm’s workshop for refurbishing. It had been badly knocked about and was in a dreadful state. A considerable amount of time and money was spent in getting it into absolutely first-class condition again. When the job was done, it was as good as new. The time came for it to be sold, and there was a prospective purchaser. When they tried to find the machine, it was not there. In a delightfully careless moment, someone in the firm had seen the address from which it had come, and he had sent it back there. At that stage the firm gave up.