A STREET COLLECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 79, 2 April 1914, Page 7

A STREET COLLECTION.

MOTOR AMBULANCE TfSO. PANTOMIME COMPANY ASSISTS. GRATIFYING rUBLIC RESPONSEThat the public loves a free show goe3 without saving. That it is also openhanded when there is a just cause was proved this morning by members of the Aladdin Pantomime Company. Wanting further donations to bring his motor ambulance scheme to a successful issue. Captain Thomas, manager of the Auckland Hospital, sought the assistance of members of the company in carrying out a street entertainment and collection. His request was cheerfully complied with, and the co-operation of citizens was also invited. The result was that a lengthy concourse of motor vehicles and four-horse lorries set out from His Majesty's Theatre this morning, bent on conquest for a worthy cause. From big lorries, cliara-bancs, and cars, the principals of the company angled, with gratifying success, amongst the crowd, which lined the streets so densely that the tram traffic was occasionally disorganised. The vehicles were gaily decorated, and the theatrical people used brightly coloured butterfly nets, on long handles, with which they reacted for pennies or any other cointhnt they could prevail upon the spectator to part with. From private cars local people also interested in the scheme made levy upon the crowd. Every here and there—-at Shortland Street, Victoria Street, and so on—the procession would turn out of Queen Street, and principals of the company would provide an interesting entertainment. Accompanied by the orchestra, songs were given by Miss Grace Palotta, Miss Carrie Moore, Miss Mabel Batchelor, Mr Edward Stanley, and several other members of the conipayn. Meantime fair collectors would conduct sortie 9in amongst the crowd, which on each occasion was sufficiently large to completely block all traffic If their enthusiasm the ladies even stormed adjacent offices, and collected toll from all and sundry. The appearance of any particular favourite on the impromptu concert platform at these street corner intervals was the signal for a demonstration of the right kind, all manner of coins being fired at the artist with more or less accurate aim Oceasionaly a collector was struck in the face, but fortunately no one was hurt, and the collectors made a triumphal tcjur up the whole length of Queen Street! after which operations were removed, with similar success, to Karan<*ahape Road. Something over two hours was spent in making this appeal to the public, at the end of which time the ladies of the company, many of whom had to stand all the while on the moving vehicles, unprotected from the sun, were displaying signs of fatigue- Even so, their "enthusiasm was apparently still unabated, and they kept up a continual plea with the crowd for contributions, which came in consistent showers. It is probable that a good many small coins, thrown from the pavement, faTed to reach the platform, and were lost in the street, but a bevy of small boys narched alongside each vehicle, and bright but keen eyes marked most efforts of unsuccessful skill in throwing, and saw that the coin ultimately reached the destination for which it was intended. \ novel feature of it-he proceedings was the trale -of kisses by one of the principals of the company at a sovereign a -time. In the way more than one bright goMe-a coin found its way mto the collection box. The amount required by Captain Thomae for the .purchase of the motor ambulance ( £500) has now been largely oversubscribed. Jn fact, .the last of the private 6irbscris.lone— a donation of £3S from the boys attending the Auckland Grammar School—brought the total up to the amount wfcic-h Captadn Thomas originally set out to acquire. The additional sum cofflected to-day, however, will put the echeme on the best possible footing. Up to the time of going to prese only about a quarter of the amount collected had been counted, tout the first four boxes yielded £20, and it is •roughly estimated that the total -will be in the region of £-150.