A QUEER FIND.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

A QUEER FIND.

The skipper of an English fishing boat had a surprise the other day when he found in the stomach of a whiting a brass token dated 1701!

We cannot suppose the whiting was 220 years old. He must have found the coin lying at the bottom of the sea in recent times, and it must have been rolling about there ever since some wreck two centuries ago. By what a curious chance it has found its way back to the light of day and the world of men!

Of course, the token has no value except as a curiosity. It was never current money. A token was a coin issued by a private person or civic authority, and arrangements were made to exchange it for goods or current money. Many famous firms paid their workpeople like this, and some of the designs used were very quaint. The collection of these old tokens makes an amusing hobby, and someone who .is engaged in this pursuit is sure to give the whiting’s contribution a good home. But perhaps no other token in the world has such a queer story —dost in the sea and returned to the world by a fish. THE BRIGHT BOY OF POPLAR. In a vivid book of his experiences, “Let’s Go to Poplar,” by Lax, the popular missionary who toils there, is an excellent story of a boy applying for. work before a committee who wished to test his powers of Observation. Before he entered, says Lax, in order to put his powers to the test they turned a picture in the room with its face to the wall and placed the w’astepaper basket on its side. Then this dialogue took place. What is your name, my boy? William Ewart Vernon. What do they call you at home? 'Billy, sir. Have you good eyesight, Billy? Yessir. Do you notice anything peculiar in this room ? Yessir. The picture’s wrong. Shall I put it straight? Anything else? Yessir. Somebdoy’s knocked the wastepaper basket over. The committee, we hear, was favourably impressed, but Lax, wishing to proceed, put a pen behind his ear and said: “Do you observe anything peculiar about me?” “Yes, sir,” he said at once; “yer wants yer hair cutting, sir!” The boy obtained the job.