UNUSUAL CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1912, Page 7

UNUSUAL CASE.

— ♦ — • SYSTEM OF CARDS. [UK TELEGBAPH — PBESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, This Day. An unusual case was heaTd in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, by Mi*. C. C. Kettle, S.M. It appeared, on the ervidence, much of which had been taken, on commission in Wellington, that Mr. A. M'Neil, who was described as a journalist and' aleo as the manager for the plaintiffs (the Grocers' Order Card Company) had evolved a rather ingenious, if slightly complicated, system enabling grocers, storekeepers, and other providers of the necessaries of life to come into closer touch with consumers. The idea was a simple one. On a card about demy folio in size the names of all advertisers, with the company v/we printed 1 inured ink, and in smaller black letters there appeared', a list of the "leading lines" which these tradespeople were prepared to supply It was agreed between the Grocers.' Order Card Company and its client® that 50,000 of these cards should be printed for thfc North bland. It was not denied that the printers in Wellington had supplied the number of cards, and the project was that the cards were to be distributed by the grocers, storekeepers, dealers, and others who advertised on the cards, amongst their customers, who would be asked to hang the cards up in some convenient place hi their dwellings, so that whwi a. traveller came -along each householder could at once refer to the card, check the list ot her .requirements by it, and at once answer the question, "What shall I order to-day?" The defendant, J. Al ' Bock, is a chemist of Union-street, Auckland, and against him a claim for £10 was made ! by the plaintiff company, as they said he had not complied with the terms of the contract. The claim was in res-pent of the advertisement published by the company for the defendant. Defendant repudiated any obligation, because, as h« said, there had been several serious mistakes in his published advertisements, and such contractions as " podr " for "powder" and "prepins" for "preparations *' were useless' as advertisement© intended to attract the attention of housewives, who might be quite ignorant of the extent, to which contractions in orthography are sometimes allowed to pass nowadays. Moreover, the plaintiff could not swear positively that a list of the grocers, etc., which defendant claimed was an essential feature of the agreement that had been supplied. Defendant and his daughter, who during his absence from town had kept his books and dealt with his business correspondence, swore that such a list had^ never reached them. ? The plaintiffs were nonsuited.