C.T. DRIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 175, 25 July 1936, Page 10

C.T. DRIVE.

CLOTHES AND BOOKS.

TOP HATS, CORSETS, SHOES

CITY COMBED FOR DISCARDS,

A top hat perched on a pair of outsized corsets, hobnailed boots standing alongside a dainty pair of evening shoes, bathing suits, crash helmets, brassieres and furs; an Edgar Wallace thriller alongside a Shakespeare, a Bible and an anthology of modern songs and lyrics— in fact, one of the most extraordinary collections of clothes and books ever assembled in one heap.

With the speed and efficiency for which they are renowned, members of the Auckland Commercial Travellers' Association conducted their annual drive for cash, books and clothes in the city and suburbs this morning. By mid-day thousands of coins were being counted at headquarters in High Street and huge piles of clothes and books were being feverishly sorted and fumigated at shed 9 on the Central wliarf.

Zoned into 39 areas, each with a captain and a team, the city and suburbs were covered in a houafc-to-liouse canvass. Almost without exception householders had parcels ready and as suburban streets rang to the cries of the travellers and a collectors, housewives hurriedly gathered together father's old plus fours, and the Oppcnheims and Edgar Wallaces which littered the spare room.

Jf 'Praise for the efficiency and energy of the commercial travellers was heard on all sides. The nerve-centre of the organisation was headquarters in High Street, where, as though by magic, operations were directed in the North Shore and all city and suburban areas. Fortyfour depots were established, 250 cars and 44 lorries were used, 300 men and hundreds more boy scouts were co-ordinated. Unconscious Humour. It was with a good deal of hesitation that some housewives parcelled up their gifts. "Would a book on the fundamentals of Communism be of any.use?" "Do you think you could make use of a stewing pot which needed a patch?" "What about a dress suit, slightly motheaten?" "And surely this evening frock —it cost £10 10/ new —could be used for dusters?" These were some of the questions asked;

One dear old lady, bent and frail, with silver hairs, confessed she had stayed up most of the night to finish knitting a baby's Her clothes, she said, were too old to give away, but perhaps somebody like a patchwork bedspread she Had made 30 years ago ?

And one collector, realising the spirit of her gift, and realising also the circumstances of this lonely old woman, who apparently lived by herself, left a £1 note on the hallstand as he went out. There were several similar cases, cases ill which women who believed they could help somebody who was a little worse oft than they, and who at Jeast were recompensed for their gesture by the helping hand of a commercial traveller. Load After Ldad. Fanning out from the 42 depots, drivers canvassed street after street, filled their cars and returned to their depot. Here their cargo was unloaded and loaded again on to lorries, which carried the gifts with all speed to shed 9, Central wharf. A dozen eager workers seized the parcels, sorted them and fumigated the contents, and the lorries went off into the suburbs for further loads. A huge pile of the most amazing assortment of clothes, shoes, hats, books and oddments had been sorted by mid-day.

When the goods were delivered at the wharf shed, they were handed over to workers under the direction of the Mayor's Unemployment Committee, the Mayoress' Book Fund and the Women's Hospital Auxiliary. Through those organisations the clothes and books v/i'.l be distributed to various Auckland charitable institutions.

Hundreds of collection boxes were thrust under the noses of the public in the city and suburbs, and w'th that remarkable facility commercial travellers have for forcing people to give with a smile, boxes were quickly filled. So satisfactory was the collection that a staff of counters were kept busy cheeking the contents of the boxes a« they came in until late in the afternoon.

When the Auckland commercial travellers driv% for anything they drive to some purpose.