RICHES FROM REFUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6132, 19 March 1898, Page 6

RICHES FROM REFUSE.

The shrewd specnlatorTriio offered the New York cafcy authorities €he sum of £400 a year for the privilege of permission to scoot the streets of the city, and to i retain the refuse found therein, bow de- ! rives an annual incomeof more than J6IOOO from that enterprise. Almost everything he collects is utilised in some way, and ultimately turned into gold. Old paper is made into papier macM, rags into paper, old garments are ground up by machinery, manipulated skil£nlly,.aiHLsold as shoddy •cloth. A smart Parisian baker has built a big fortune from breadcrumbs. It occurred to him some years ago that-adeal of good material was being ■wasted in remnants of stale bread. These he carefully collected from various sources, cleansed them, and worked them up into cheap^jakes for the very -(poor of Paris. As his business developed, he employed agents to gather in the remnants of bread from hotels, schools and other institutions, and so extended Ms trade. To-day he has the biggest business in Paris, and is almost a mil. hoTiaue. A rich tobacco nierohautdn London has -deriveda deal of his huge income from the sale of a fancy snuff, patented under a peculiar name, and very -popular with thetrade. But few of his countless customer* who inhale the fragrant dust are aware of ' the fact that the potent powder is composed almost-entirely of the waste ends of cigars flungtwray by-smokers in the-streets of the -metropolis. An abandoned marl pit in Lancashire which had lain waste for years, was purchased from its original owner by a Mr Henry Boys, of Walsall, whovsecureditfot small sum. Its new pro•prietor dug deep into the old pit,.manimil lated the marl in a skilful manner and turned it into bricks, which, for their unique quality, were soon in great demand among the builders of the Black Country In the coarse of ten years the shrewd brickmaker had made a fortune of m««« than £12,000. more A thoughtful man in the English w trade was impressed by the number'of old tins he observed lying about. It Z.Z Jborne in upon his mind that these A' canieditms^night^ejinade^into^^^dxen^ '■

toysTwid at small cost. Acting on this idea, heScollected the tins in considerable quantities, started a small factory, and employed a number of girls, who cut the 'ins by machinery and turned them into attractive-looking toys. This novel notion has yielded him during the last seven years many thousands of pounds.