LOST AND FOUND

Evening Star, Issue 19196, 12 March 1926, Page 4

LOST AND FOUND

PURSES, WATCHES, UMBRELLAS

' AND A CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOLBOY

Interviewed by a * Star ’ reporter yesterday, Senior-sergeant Clarkson, in charge of the Police Station at the entrance gates to the Exhibition, spoke interestingly of the many articles lost and found at the “ Big Show,” and reported at his office. The principal things that come in (he said) are lost purses; and we get a few watches, umbrellas, brooches, bangles, parcels, etc. We have had a fair number of purses containing money down to as low as one penny and up to as high as £3O, and several containing a few shillings or a pound or two. We have one odd pearl earring yet unclaimed, and many odd gloves. The latter, of course, are of no use to anybody without their fellows, but occasionally people drop in, sort them over, and find one they had lost. We keep the things hero for a few days, and tben,_ if they are not claimed, send them in to the Central Police Station to go through the usual routine laid down for lost property. We have had a number of lost railway tickets brought in here, and one gold medal. Thirty-two purses have been reported to us, either lost or found, already this month, and it is only the 11th clay of March to-day. That will give you some idea of the number we have "had through our hands. It is about the average. THE LOST BOY’S FUS'D. “It is surprising the amount of stuff that is lost here, especially on a busy day. and, of course, I don’t, suppose that all • the people who lose things—or all those who find them, for that matter —communicate with us. It all depends upon the honesty of tho finder. One little fellow, eight years of ago, belonging to the Christchurch schools’ contingent (the _ Pnillipstown School) was found wandering about tho Exhibition quite lost one night and brought in here. Ho said ho was billeted at the Burns Hall, and could find his way there if wo put him down in the main road leading to it; but my wife was here at tho time and wo took him with us to his billet. Tho next day a small boy came in with a purse he had found—a lady’s purse, or handbag, containing £2 10s in notes and Ss Id in cash. Ho said, ‘ I am the little boy that was lost yesterday, and I have "found this purse.’ The lady afterwards claimed it and gave the boy 5s for his honesty. It is a good thing to encourage the children that way. The Senior Sergeant showed our representative a big pile of some 150 receipts given to the police for lost property of various kinds handed over to the owners.