AMBULANCE SATURDAY.

Press, Volume V, Issue 13598, 6 December 1909, Page 7

AMBULANCE SATURDAY.

A SUCCESSFUL EFFORT

The annual street collection in aid of the funds of St. John 'Ambulance Association was made on Saturday. Up to 9.30 p.m. the amount to hand was £200 16s. Several boxes had then to be returned, and a largo numbar of collecting cards (last year these showed an averago of 10s each) had still to come in, so that the result of last year's effort (£286) should at least be equalled. Everything tended to the success of the undertaking. The weather was fine, and the public were in a mood to succumb without undue protestations to the wiles of the wealth of youth and beauty charged with the onerous task of diverting current cash _° m _° P° Ssess « > ' 1 * of individuals to the coffers of the particular cause sought to be assisted. The collectors, arrayed in white garments of fascinating design, went to their posts at 8.30 a.m., the stations being strategically arranged so as to constitute a perfect network of entanglements from which there was no escape for anyone who had occasion to set foot in the city. Further than that, a series of instructions was issued to the ladies, in which the most effective method of levying toll uron those citizens whose left hands were inclined to enquire parsimoniously what their right hands contemplated doing. Even tho possibility of some seeking to evade the rendering of tribute by flight was contemplated, and this vas compassed by the terse injunction, "Chase "em." In all there were nineteen stations (five more than last year), eaoh of these forming a base for the operation of four enterprising young ladies. Four relays, each working three hours, were arranged in order that the collecting process might continue until 8.30 p.m. on Saturday. Not only were the busy thoroughfares energetically patrolled, but the railway station, saleyards, auction marts, bowlinggreens, and cricket and sports grounds were invaded, all with satisfactory results'. The first shift did excellent service, the boxes containing on an average £2 each. That exceedingly useful institution, the Boy Scouts, rendered most valuable assistance. Four reliefs, each comprising 17 lads in their smart uniforms, were in attendance, the boys escorting and assisting the ladies and otherwise helping matters along. The day's proceedings were under the supervision of Mr C. J. Treieaven, the organiser; Mr A. S. Lindsay had charge of the collecting boxes and the counting operations; Miss Staveley was in charge of the sashes and badges, while Mrs F. Pratt, assisted by a number of other ladies, supervised matters outside. Mr A. L. Smith kindly lent his motor car for the morning, Messrs Hawke and Co. providing a driver; whiie during tbe afternoon further cars were lent "by Messrs J. J. Collins and T. Maude. Meals and refreshments for the collectors were generously furnished by Broadway's, Freeman's, Gill's, Messrs Dennis Bros., Savoy Cafe, Cafe Cecil, Federal Hotel, Warner's Hotel, Masonic Hotel, Clarendon Hotel, United Service Hotel, White Hart Hotel, and the Cafe de Paris. The assortment of articles (outside of good, honest coin of the realm) bore eloquent testimony to the ingenuity displayed by individuals in the effort to gain maximum reputations for generosity, at a minimum o_ oost. For example, one large-hearted person had gone to the trouble of silvering quite a number of pennies, and these he distributed (no doubt with the air of a Croesus) over a wide area of stations. The motive of the gehtleman who dropped his visiting card in one of the boxes with a lordly flourish is difficult to.devise, as also was the action of the "■portion who bestowed a pass for a bj*gone race meeting at Hororata upon the Association. A capital imitation of a half-sovereign was one of the evidences of prodigality A Kruger threepenny piece, a farthing, and an old "J. H. Hall" token, were interesting contributions. Among the quite hopeless gifts wore numerous brace buttons, idiscs of tin, a latch-key, a match-box lid. and an empty green-pea pod. A Mexican coin, a staple, arid a cigarette card completed the list of spurious and useless articles, tne number of which was much larger this year than over before in the experience of the Association.

(I_SIS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) W r ELLINGTON, December 5. Street collections on behalf of St. John Ambulance Association were ma_e in W r ellington yesterday. The collections totalled about £223.