GENERAL NEWS.

Patea Mail, Volume XLV, 14 January 1921, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

BETRAYED BY LOVE

DRAMA OF CONVICT’S ESCAPE. Thirty years ago Pierre Renault, then a youth of 20, was condemned to 10 years of forced labour in the penal colony of Guiana for an act of robbery. He succedcd in escaping, and for the last 19 years he was living in Paris, quietly plying his trade as a coppersmith. Three years ago he met and fell in love with Mile Lottie Nausknccht, but for fear of revealing his identy he stubbornly refused to marry her, although the couple had a son two years old. The womans tears finally prevailed, and Renault consented to a marriage ceremony to legitimise his son. The expected announcement arrived when, in the course of the proceedings his military documents were found to be faulty, and he was condemned to six months imprisonment. While he was in prison his true story came to light, but, although she ■learned the bitter truth of her lovers past, although she was told that her husband to be was to be sent back to Guiana, Mile Naussknccht insisted on marrying him. Great efforts are bing made to obtain for him the Presidential pardon, since his past for the past thirty years has been of exemplary honesty and industry. HEAT V. LIGHT. '+ v The new method of calculating -'the price of gas by the ‘ 4 therm ’ ’ instead by the cubic foot is a little puzzlirfg'Udy the average householder, but it that quality as well as quantity a factor in fixing the price (says'.th®Daily Chronicle. So far, however, hs it is based on the heating Capacity oc the gas, the new system is kconfession of the inability of gas engineers to produce light apart,from heat. Heat, of course, is the main thing for a gas cooker or gas stove, but for illuminating purposes, light, not heat is what is •wanted. iSomcthing like 98 per cent of the energy generated in the manufacture of gas is given out as wasteful heat where gas is used for lighting purposes. The firefly reverses the process, and manufactures a light which has an efficiency of 96 per cent of the energy at the back of it. When gas experts —or electric light experts, for the matter of that—can emulate the firefly, our lighting bills will be hardly worth collecting. NEWSPAPER ADS BUILT UP A BIG BUSINESS. A young man started a small men’s clothing store in a middle western city. He had a capital of £3,000 and borrowed £2,500 more. He also had idea and nerve. Before he opened his door he had invested £IOOO in newspaper advertising. To-day, 32 years later, he is reputed to do the largest retail men’s clothing business of the world, and his store has a nation wide reputation as a leader. In those 32 years he has spent nearly £1,000,000 in newspaper advertising.

Speaking of the part newspaper advertising played in his success, the other day, this man said. "It may seem strange, but the people believe what they sec in the newspapers. That’s what makes advertising in the newspapers so valuable.

"I have always made it a point to state the truth exactly, never to cxagcratc. I would rather have the customer a little surprised when he looked at the goods than a little disappointed. < ‘ I’ve fried advertising on billboards, in street cars, in, magazines and phamphlets,in novelties. I once sent up a flock of baloons with letters tied to* them, and prizes—and other awards —to the finders. "I stuck up signposts all over the city. Well, some of them went for kindling wood; some were torn down by the city. I tried many other ways of advertising—but the newspapers proved by all means the best, and I kept everlasting at it.