A “NICE" TOWN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4464, 15 August 1941, Page 4

A “NICE" TOWN

THE GENTLE ART OF DROPPING. STORY OF THE PAST. Te Kuiti is rather proud of its reputation it will probably swell with pride when it hears of the following little tribute paid to it in days gone by. Mr Len Lovell, formerly of Te Kuiti, found the passage in the columns of past files of the Te Puke Times now acquired by him. “An observant visitor to Te Kuiti during the Easter holidays expresses his firm conviction that an active man as ‘dropper’ can make three pounds a day in the King Country,” says the paragraph. “The business certainly has its risks, but then so has every business enterprise, and very little capital is required. Quite a number are engaged in the industry, he states, but it is not overdone, and the demand keeps well ahead of the supply. The contents of the ‘dropped’ bottles, he explains, usually consist of three concoctions, and are known as ‘spots.’ The first layer consists of whisky, the second of kerosene; and there is a top-dressing of methylated spirits. It is a vile concoction, and its effects are deadly. A bottle costs 12s 6d, but when there is a Maori tangi on, prices go up to 155.”