FIRM FINED £5000

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25215, 30 May 1945, Page 4

FIRM FINED £SOOO

BLACK-MARKETING CHARGES BRISBANE, May 27 Found guilty on two charges of blackmarketing, Joseph Pease Pty., Ltd., was fined £2500 on each charge in Cairns Summons Court. Robert Roberts, managing-director, was sentenced to six months' gaol on each of two charges, the sentences to be concurrent. Costs of £69 19s 2d on each charge were imposed. It was stated that the firm sold two dozen quart bottles of sauterne for £7 6s 3d (maximum price £3 7s 6d) and 19 and 8-10 th gallons of wine for £9 18s (maximum price £4 12s). RELIC OF THE PAST MUZZLE-LOADER IN USE (0.C.) HAMILTON, Tuesday A single-barrelled muzzle-loading sporting gun is still in use in New Zealand. This ancient fowling piece was brought to the infant colony nearly a century ago bv a great-uncle of Mr fan Good let, of Frarikton, who now possesses and uses it. The gun is a fine specimen of the handicraft of Isaac Hollis, founder of the firm of I. Hollis and Son, London, which still turns out a first-class "tailor-made" job. It has an ebony-shafted ramrod, is fitted with a cap-firing hammer and is in excellent condition, having had very little use, but having been carefully stored. "Mr Goodlet finds it difficult to obtain percussion caps and low-powered powder of the old type, but he has been able to enjoy an occasional day's rabbit shooting and he speaks enthusiastically of the gun's accuracy. One advantage of the old-style muzzle-loader is that it is possible to vary the powder load according to the range required. This particular gun fires a very close "group" and there is little recoil. As a relic of the past it is worthy of a place in the museum, hut it is probably being much more useful as a destroyer of vermin in the hands of its owner, and there it is likely to remain. s