UNCLAIMED INTEREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24540, 24 March 1943, Page 2

UNCLAIMED INTEREST

DEBENTURES IN BORDEAUX MONEY WAITING IN SYDNEY (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday When another instalment of interest is paid next week there will be over £BOOO waiting in Sydney for collection on the presentation of coupons from Christchurch Drainage Board debentures last heard of in Bordeaux before the German occupation. As no attempt has been made to negotiate the coupons, it is thought they cannot have been found by the German occupation authorities. In the meantime beneficiaries in the estate which held the debentures have not received their usual payments because they cannot present the coupons. One of tho beneficiaries is a Christchurch woman. Tho debentures, which are the equivalent of bearer bonds, arc a parcel of £50,000 bought by the late Sir Owen Cox, with the stipulation that interest he paid in Sydney. The debentures were later deposited by Sir Owen Cox in the Lloyds and National Provincial Foreign Bank at Bordeaux and after his death they remained there when a trust was set up Thus in the case of the Christchurch beneficiary interest found its way via Sydney to Bordeaux, and then had to be remitted to Christchurch. The bonds were believed to be in Bordeaux when the town was occupied by the Germans in 1910 and it was thought likely that Germany would be able to sell the debentures or interest coupons through a neutral channel. That this lias not been done suggests that the bonds were destroyed or safely hidden. In the meantime the Christchurch Drainage Board has continued to remit half-yearly interest payments to the Bank of New Zealand in Sydney, where already £6620 is held in a suspense account awaiting tho presentation of coupons. WARTIME WORK AGE BENEFICIARIES Men and women in receipt of age benefits under tho social security regulations are now able, according to a wartime amendment to the regulations, to take np full or part-time work of any naturo and to earn any wages, with surrender of their full benefits for tho duration of such work only. This amendment should induce many who were previously more or less tied by the regulations to take up light war work, for which they are urgently needed. Under tho previous arrangement, tho benefit of any man who in any year earned more than £52 was reduced in the following year by one pound for cverv pound earned in excess of £52. ISow, however, although they must surrender their benefits during the period of their work, beneficiaries may again obtain their full grants immediately they cease earning. SUPPLIES OF GAS CAREFUL USE URGED Unexpected demands for gas for wartime industries and the present coal position are causing the management of the Auckland Gas Company, Limited, much concern, and consumers have been requested to exercise the utmost economy in the use of stoves and heaters. It was stated yesterday that the gasometers were very low, and efforts to produce sufficient gas to meet the demand were counteracted by a shortage of manpower. As a result an appeal is made to the 54,000 consumers in Auckland to use as little hot water as possible and to keep the burners on stoves low to ensure that there will bo no wastage of gas. FRENCH HOSPITALITY A description of a meal givon to a Now Zealand soldier by French hosts at their plantation in New Caledonia sent to a relative in Auckland, provides an interesting; sidelight on the war in that area. Tho writer lists the complete menu for the luncheon, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes. Aftor a loaf of bread accompanied by three bottles of wine and a meat paste, came a dish of crabs, each measuring about Gin. across. There followed a dish of lettuce salad with hot grilled steak and potato chips, then mangos, boiled rice with sweet sauce and finally an immense dish of prunes stewed in wine. After an hour's conversation, which the writer commented was very necessary, they inspected the plantation. Wild flowers were there in abundance and he also saw spiders measuring about three inches across. There were also numbers of beautifully-coloured butterflies.