J. Mann and Sons was first established as a farm produce store in 1921. The range of products was extended in the 1930s and included groceries and hardware, as well as the first petrol bowser in Wodonga outside the store. After WWII, the premises were extended and the range of products continued to increase. In the 1960s the Mann Family opened a new supermarket in Wodonga, in addition to the hardware business, providing steel, plumbing and industrial supplies, and they employed over 100 people at one stage. With changes in the retail industry, the Mann Family sold the main hardware business to Bunnings and the steel and rural produce business to the Kelly brothers in 2006. Paragon, trading at various times as Lancom Paragon, Moore Paragon, Paragon Printing and the South Pacific Print Group, was also based in Wodonga from 1958 until 2010. It began as Lamson Paragon in 1958 but was destroyed by a fire causing £150,000 damage. The factory resumed operations on 24 June 1959.with 30 staff and by 1973 employed 120 and used 80 tons of paper per week. Further develp[ment took place to the factory in 2 stages. In 1977 Moore Corporation of Toronto took over control of the London based parent company Lamson Paragon necessitating a change of name of the Australian company to become Moore Business Systems Australia Limited. After many successful years of operation including expansion to a staff of 240 people, changes to business operations and the loss of several large contracts led to the company entering voluntary administration in March 2010.This machine and docket has local provenance as it came from the 20th century business of J. Mann & Son in Wodonga..The machine was manufactured by Paragon, also operating as Lamcon Paragon and Moore Paragon, which were a major manufacturer in Wodonga from 1958 until 2010.This is a grey rectangular-shaped metal box with rounded edges. The box has four metal studs on the base to keep the box stable. The box has a hinged section to enable paper dockets to be inserted. It also has a turning mechanism for removing the dockets, one at a time from a slot at the top of the machine. The machine includes a docket from Mann Mitre 10 Wodonga operated by J. Mann & Son Pty. Ltd. The dockets provided a duplicate copy for the company as well as the white copy for the customer. The dispenser and dockets were produced by Paragon.At top of dispenser: "Paragon" Across top of docket: "J. MANN & SON Pty. Ltd. (Incorporated in Victoria) TRADING AS: / Manns Mitre 10/ P.O. BOX 141, VIC., 3690. Phone: (060) 24 4813paragon, lamson paragon, moore paragon, mann wodonga, moore business systems australia limited

This booklet of sales dockets came from the Youngers Stores in Warrnambool. John Younger came to Warrnambool from Beechworth in 1888 and established a general store in Liebig Street and quickly built up a thriving business. His store was one of the main reasons why Liebig Street became the main shopping precinct in Warrnambool by the beginning of the 20th century. John Younger was active in community affairs and was a Town Councillor from 1902 to 1918 and Mayor of the Town. He died in the 1930s and his store was continued by family members but taken over by Charles Moore in 1958. It closed in the 1980s. The maker of the docket book, Lamson Paragon Limited, was a British firm with factories and offices in Australia and it initially specialized in making sales docket books using a carbon paper process. The original founder of the firm, William Lamson of Massachusetts, U.S.A., was the first to introduce the system of paying for goods in a store using cash balls on tracks. This pad is of some interest as it shows the system of receipts issued by a Warrnambool firm in the 1950s. It is of particular interest coming from Youngers Stores, a major retailer in Warrnambool for over 90 years. This is a pad of dockets stapled together 30 pages). The pages are buff-coloured with red and black printing on every second page. Every second page has been left blank so that a second copy could be kept of every transaction using carbon paper. The pad originally had dockets for 50 transactions for Youngers Stores in Liebig Street, Warrnambool. The first three pages are badly torn. The back of every docket has an advertisement for Youngers stores.Docket front: ‘Phone 21, Terms, Nett Cash, M……………., Younger Pty Ltd, General Merchants, Registered Office, Liebig St., Warrnambool, We Buy for Cash and Sell for Cash, Sold by, Exd. By, Date, Lamson Paragon Limited.’docket book, younger pty ltd, general merchants, department stores, liebig street, warrnambool