BURIED TREASURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19799, 26 May 1926, Page 5

BURIED TREASURE.

MISERS IN FRANCE. Side by side with the ultra-extravagant attitude of the Chamber towards the French financial problem comes one more instance of treasure-hoarding, which is the other side of French life, and which makes so impossible of calculation thp amount of French resources. Mile. Anais Leroy was murdered the other day for a million and a-quarter francs which she insisted on keeping in the house —probably in the linen cupboard or under the mattress. Every day she filled her own coal-scuttle and did her own work, saving every sou to add to the hoard for which she lived. She is an outstanding example of French thrift degenerated into avarice and miserliness, but she is extraordinarily representative. In every village there are seemingly poor old women and wretched old men who are suspected by their neighbours of having considerable fortunes, and, unlike most rumours, many of these prove to be true. In Brittany not long ago an old woman who was given a sou every week* by a charitable person, in addition to a cup of coffee, fell ill, and had to be cared for by her neighbours. In her linen cupboard were found many thousand francs. At Verdun an old woman who did all her owp washing in the stream was found during illness to have a large fortune concealed above the chimney. A butler and his wife over a long period of service accumulated their wages until they had saved about 10,000 francs. They did not invest it, but kept it locked in a suitcase. Its value to-day has to be divided by five. This hoarding of money and keeping it idle perhaps for a lifetime is common all over France, especially peasant France, which mistrusts banks and believes in portable property which may serve in time of war. For the number of cases which are revealed through burglaries and murders, there are many more which come to light only when the question of inheritance arises. The conditions imply an enormous amount of buried treasure in France, which does no good to anyone, except in so far as the depreciation of the notes at the present moment relieves the French Government, at least temporarily. of some of its obligations. Old women in particular hoard their money, often living in terror at its possible loss, rather than in the comfort which it might provide for them. This instinct is much truer to the French character than the irresponsibilities of the French deputies with an axe to grind. It may be that the salvation of French finance lies in finding some method which still encourages the saving tendencies of the people, but gives them reason to entrust these savings to their public representatives.