STRANGE DIET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23401, 18 July 1939, Page 16

STRANGE DIET

BANKNOTES CHEWED BABY IN AUSTRALIA BANK HONOURS REMNANTS [FROM OUlt OWN correspondent] I SYDNEY, July 11 j A child with expensive tastes is j Anthony Oliver, aged 22 months, of I Epping. an outer Sydney suburb. He j ate part of £1 note and two-thirds of | a £0 note as a prc-lunch snack. Airs. Francis Oliver placed her hand- J bag on a bed two feet from Anthony's cot. Anthony is thought to have put one foot through the bars of the cot and hooked the handle of the bag. Opening the bag, lie took about six bites from a £1 note, and, probably disliking the flavour, tossed it away. He found a £5 note better flavour, and munched away. One of Airs. Oliver's five daughters told her that Anthony was eating coloured paper. She went to the baby's cot-as Anthony had chewed up to the numbers near tho top of the £5 note. The wording, "This note is legal tender for five pounds," the signature of the governor of the Commonwealth Bank and that of the secretary to the Treasury, had been consumed. Anthony refused to eat his tea that night. Otherwise lie was not affected by the richness of the diet. Official Inquiry Instituted Anthony was tho centre of an "official" inquiry. His parents were required to make a signed declaration to tho Commonwealth Bank before their loss was met. They had .to prove to tho bank that the missing parts of the note could not bo recovered, and that the mutilation was not the result of a wilful and deliberate act. That the missing parts were not recoverable was easy to establish, but what had to be settled was whether Anthony Oliver "wilfully and deliberately nibbled" the notes. The case of Anthony Oliver was not unprecedented, according to the officials of the Commonwealth Bank. "Aly department deals with dozens of such cases daily," said the chief cashier. "All that the holder of the remains of the note is required to do is to satisfy us as to tho reason for the mutilation of the note. Wo have given Air. Oliver full value for the notes the baby nibbled. "A 1 embers of the staff have sometimes spent hours piecing notes together like a jig-saw puzzle to establish whether they were genuine or not " The cashier quoted a recent instance of a 10s note reduced to pulp which was brought to the bank. The owner explained that his son's pet goat had swallowed the money. The annual had boon immediately destroyed, and tho remains of the note recovered. Men More Careless than Women "Wo find that it is men who are careless and literally throw away or destroy money," said the cashier. "Women rarely do this. SOlllO people have an obsession for parking money in secret places near a fire. Alost cases of mutilation are caused through notes having been thrown into a lire and hastily retrieved. "With winter wo always have an army of people who have parked thensavings ill the gas stove or even tho chip bath-heater, and accidentally cooked them." The bank officer quoted the case of a publican who wrapped £l5O in a newspaper,'put it for safety in tho chipheater and wont to bed. Next morning his wife Jit tho heator, took a bath, and went to church. Tho notes were charred beyond recognition. "Tho only consolation wo could oiler —if you call it consolation," ho added, "was that tho wife had had tho most expensive bath 011 record. The publican did not appreciate the idea."