RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 180, 28 April 1931, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL’

(By

Kickshaws.)

A newly invented penny-ln-the-elof machine delivers a lighted cigarette. These, it is understood, will be installed for the convenience of the man wliqr owns a cigarette lighter. * » • “The children of to-day often conw plain that their parents are olds fashioned and early-Victorlan. They do not seem to realise that, in the yearg to come, when they, too, are parents, they will be looked upon by their child/ ren as old-fashioned and, if not earlyVictorian, at least early-Georgian.”—• Rose Macaulay. *• . ♦ King Alfonso’s income from Spanish sources, we are told, is £41,660. This seems to be the only definite thing about King Alfonso’s income. One moment he is declared to have put away over two millions in Continental banks, the next we hear he is living in poverty in Paris at the rate of £l5O a day, and the next moment he arrives in England wondering where on earth to lay hands on one hundred thousand pounds. Compared with what other monarchs and national Presidents receive, one can but say that Alfonso’s income is about normal. Indeed, compared with some countries with Presidents it is decidedly high. The President of the United States, for example, has to scrape along with a mere £15,000 a year. It is true there are all manner of perquisites, but his salary is decidedly low. Moreover, except for private philanthropy, a President of the United States receives no pension when he retires. The French President receives about £20,000, while the President of Cuba has voluntarily cut his salary from £5OOO a year to £3OOO.

In the case of kings, even Carol in bankrupt Rumania receives some £50,000 a year. Admittedly this is only about one-third what he considers he is worth. But then Queen Marie now receives £25,000 a year. The ex-Kaiser is perhaps a suitable counterpart of King Alfonso, so far as income denials are concerned. When he abdicated he was pictured crawling away downhearted to his £20,000 estate at Doorn a penniless monarch. Indeed, so penniless was he said to be that the German Government paid him as pin money, of good riddance money, a dole of only £2500 a month. How, one may wonder, is a man to get along on such a pittance? Especially If the money has tobe divided as he contended among 49 princelings. Nevertheless, it transpires to-day that the Kaiser himself is worth nearly £25,000.000, including 81 castles and some 80,000 acres of property. Possibly the lowest-paid ruler is tin President of. Andorra, who manages t<j exist on the not princely salary of £S a year.

Possibly the highest-paid monarch it his Majesty King George. His total salary amounts to £470,000 a year. But Parliament deducts three-quarters of it for “household salaries, works, expenses, and special charges.” His Majesty receives quarterly “negotiable receipts” amounting to £lll,BOO yearly. In spite of this, so great and so numerous are the claims on his income that experts declare that under present conditions and costs, when all have been attended to, this sum onlyleaves £2OOO a year for himself.

Counterfeit Bank of New Soutl Wales notes bearing the number E 931885 are stated to be in circulation in Wellington and other towns This counterfeit is a fair imitation oy the genuine, but it may be detected by a number of faults. The notes, it is stated, have been made by a photograph!* process and subsequently touched up by hand. There can be little doubt thes« days that a forger has his work cut out to produce even a passable reproduction of a bank note. For one thing nearly all modern notes are printed in several colours. In some cases special reproductions of well-known pictures ar« used. One country, for instance, usefl a portrait by Holbein in which it is impossible to reproduce the eyes correctly unless copies are made from tli< original. In this case the original if housed under lock and key in Windsor Castle.

Signatures have been, and still arq the greatest curse of the forger. It ii. practically impossible to forge a wellknown signature with sufficient skill to escape detection. In the case of the Bank of'New South Wales notes a copy of the signatures on the notes war penned over a light reproduction of tho original. The trouble in cases of this nature is that the forger can never write with a flowing pen. In most cases a forged signature consists of A number of minute lines etched in with the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. Such signatures are often easy to detect with the naked eye; seen under a microscope their bogus origin is unmistakable. Expert forgers, especially of cheques, avoid signatures whenevef possible. All manner of expedients ara used to this end. One man called on business men with a special acid resist-

ing ink. He invited his customers to try it. He produced some acid, actually coloured water, to prove the merits of his ink. He sold a number of these bottles of ink at one guinea each. In some cases cheques were presented for payment using the Ink just sold. This ink was indeed special ink. It was capable of being erased without the least trouble. The figures in the cheques were altered to large amounts and tli« forger made a large sum of money.

In the case of bank notes, apart from signatures, there are three main objects before the makers—paper peculiarities, intricacy of design, and elaborate watermarks. Examination of almost any make, except Bank of England notes, will make this clear. Tha Bank of England is the only great bank that issues one-coloured paper money. It looks a simple matter to forge them. Nevertheless it is almost impossible t-J make a copy of a Bank of England note that cannot bo detected instantly over the counter of almost any bank in the world. For these notes art printed by a secret process, on paper the manufacture of which is a secret of-one firm only. The composition of the ink is also secret. Moreover, it ir impossible to reproduce the watermark except on the special paper used witt water from one special well not ao cessible to the public. As precaution every note delivered to tlw Bank of England passes through a self registering machine that inserts tlk bank’s secret mark. If you try to fine that mark you will fall —so does th' forgan,