A JOINT STOCK AFFAIR.

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 129, 4 June 1927, Page 5

A JOINT STOCK AFFAIR.

AH the way from North Queensland conies a problem. It appears that sugar cane is sold in the retail fruit-markets, and may be bought by the joint, that being the unit upon which'the price i» fixed, the sellers being chiefly Solomon Islanders. This is the problem: Half a dozen kanaka women had each in theic baskets for sale 40, CO, SO, 100, 120, and 140 joints of sugar cane respectively. They disposed e of the lot very quickly at the same price, viz., that a certain current coin would buy a certain number ~~ o£ joints, and when the number did not di- " vide equally into the quantity in "stock, the odd joints over were retailed at a certain price each, viz., for another current coin. Kaeh woman sold at exactly the same rate as the other, yet, strange to say, each received exactly the same sura for her wares. Quite a "joint" stock af-~ lair evidently. It is purely a mathematical problem to find the selling price, -which, by the way seems to have been fixed for problem purposes, rather than on market value. Can the reader discover it? Queensland has the same coinage as New Zealand. ■ '

NOT ACADEMIC.

Here is.a little arithmetical puzzle thatdoes not require any knowledge of academic rule or formula to enable it to bs' solved, because the correct answer to it can only be discovered by trial. Yet it makes quite an interesting problem, and the search for a solution will afford a, pleasant pastime for a winter evening The sum of £2 17s when multiplied by sis gives £17 2s, being exactly the same figures but with the pounds and shilling.; in changed places. Up to £-30 there is, only one other instance with this peculiar feature, using a sum of pounds and shillings, and any multiplier from 2 to-S» Can the reader discover it?

A PHILANTHROPIST.

Ihere is a gentleman living not fa* iron) the city who since retiring from aci tive business has made a practice of distributing weekly charity to deserving-' ■ cases, the merits of which, he personally inquires into. He sets aside a ■certain sum every week for this purpose, and under no circumstances will he exceed it. One ot the regular applicants not long ago asked ir on next' "pay day" the gentleman could give him a trifle extra. The benefactor assured the questioner that i£ there were two fewer applicants next week than last he would be able to give a shilling more to each one. It so happened- ' however, that when next '-pay day" came, < there were three additional needy onea!applying than the week before, so each had to receive one shilling less instead of one shilling more. What amount was distributed weekly, and how many applfccauts were there on the last occasion'

AN ENGINE'S MISHAP.

The railway engine on a certain line re-: cently during a Don-stop run" be-t----tween T and E- . met -with, a slight mishap exactly two hours after leaving T . The driver, however/, iound that it would not be necessary to pull the train up, getting over the diffi--oulty by reducing the . speed" by one-fiflii the rate at which it travelled during the first two hours. The train arrived at* k just half an hour late, and the' guard informed us that i[ the accident had' happened 25 miles further on. the train would have reached E- — fifteen minutes sooner than it did. Assuming thai; the train maintained a uniform speed bofStf before the mishap and afterwards at rei duced rate as stated, can the reader cte~ termine the distance between' T ami'

A GAME OF EUCHRE.

Three friends sat down to a game oE euchre, agreeing that penny points wonJdt make the game more interesting. A. lostf the first game, resulting, in both Q. and ZJ increasing by 100 per cent, the monejr they each had started with. Z. lost tKe9 second game, and A thereby doubled thesum that he had left, Q. again benefiting' to the same extent as in the first game J viz., 100 per cent, on what he had. Th<r latter, however; by losing the third game' somewhat evened the positions of the pbvj ers, for, strange to say, it resulted in botlS A. and Z. each increasing what they hadby exactly as. much again. This concluded the sitting, and each player then hadi exactly the same amount. As A. admi*2£ ted losing two shillings and sixpence, Bow much did each start with?