THE PRESENTATION TO MR AND MRS DABINETT, OWAKA.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1003, 13 October 1893, Page 6

THE PRESENTATION TO MR AND MRS DABINETT, OWAKA.

-<v The exigencies of space prevented our giving last week so full a report as we wished of fche presentation to Mr and Mrs Dabinett. We therefore now supplement that report. . The Rev. Mr M'Laren, chairman of the meeting, addressing Mr and Mrs Dabinett said : — For some time past it has been felt that suitable recognition should be made of your long-continued and unselfish efforts for the good of the community, and more especially of your services during sickness. It is known to all of us that you Mr Dabinett, have often ridden considerable distances to render surgical assistance in cases of accident. In the absence of a resident doctor your services have frequently been called into requisition, and have proved beneficial ; indeed, I can hardly think how we could have got on without you. You have cured burns and set broken legs. You have spared no exertion to respond to the cry of distress. Your partner in life has sympathised with you in your work, and has herself always been ready to visit and nurse the sick in her more immediate neighbourhood. We know your services were given freely and lovingly, that no thought of earthly reward entered your minds. Still, many have had the feeling that you should receive some token of the appreciation in which your efforts are held. The collectors who canvassed the Owaka and Catlins district in further j,nce of this object met with a very general and hearty response. A considerable sum was soon collected, and with your approbation spent in purchasing the beautiful American organ whose strains have afforded us such pleasure to-nighfc. May this fine instrument aid you in singing the praises of the God you love. May its sweet music often refresh you when you are weary and give you a foretaste of the sweeter music of the heavenly sanctuary. May you be long spared to the district and to one another, and have strength to continue your useful career in dependence upon the aid of the Great Physician and in His spirit. When afc last your earthly work is ended may you enter into the* joy of your Lord, and have His gracious " well done " bestowed upon you. Mr and Mrs Dabinett, in name of the crimmittee of which I am chairman arid of the subscribers, I have mucb pleasure in presenting you with this American organ. ■Mr Dabinett, in reply, said thafc he would try and convey his best thanks for the present of the American organ, which wasf both useful and ornamental. He valued ifc chiefly as an expression of their gdod- will. It was nearly 20 years since he and his wife had formerly stood before a minister ; he remembered thafc or he might have said the present occasion was the happiest in his life ; it was perhaps the -next happiest. He heartily on his own behalf and wife's thanked the chairriian for his kind remarks and for the blessing he had called down wpon them. He had great pleasure in doing anything he could for those in trouble. He would not say more, as he felt like a square man in) a round hole, bufc would conclude by again thanking them all for their handsome and costly present, and for the kind feeling they had shown.