LEVIN NOTES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 78, 26 December 1925, Page 3

LEVIN NOTES

ASCENT OF MOUNT DAN DAS. Levin, December 23. On Saturday morning two .young men, Messrs. W. R. Harris and E. Vickers, residents of Levin, made a successful ascent of Mount Dundas, the outstanding peak of the Tararua range. They were detained in camp part way up on Sunday owing to heavy rain. Starting again on Monday morning the top was reached by 11.30 a.m. After spending an hour on the top, the view being obscured by fog, a return was made reaching home on Tuesday. During the past few years a large number of boys have camped in Levin during tile Christmas holidays, uudet the auspices of St. Peter’s Mission, Wellington, of which the Rev. Fcilden Taylor is the head. This year the mission is- sending a party of about fifty girls, who will arrive in Levin on Boxing Day and will proceed to their camp on the A. and P. Association grounds. The camp will be under the control of Mrs. Maud Macdonald.

Great preparations were made by the farm manager, Mr. O’Donoghue and his staff to give the boys in the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm a good time. The Christmas Day menu comprised roast lamb (grown on the farm), green peas and new potatoes from the farm gardens, followed by plum puddings, not forgetting the lucky threepenny pieces, sweets, and' soft drinks. Boxing Day will be devoted to sports and entertainments, when each boy will receive a. present should he be a winner or not in the games. There are at. present thirty-seven boys on the farm which is of some three hundred acres. These are the elder boys, who, with the staff, do the work of the farm. If after six month* they have shown good behaviour they can then go out to work for a farmer, or, if they desire, can be apprenticed to some trade and become useful citizens. It speaks volumes for the management and training the boys receive that a very large percentage turn out good. Thirty-six of the younger boys go into camp at Hokio beach for six months of the year, and then they have a school and .are under the control of the schoolmaster, Mr. White and his assistant. They have also a most excellent matron and mother in Miss Melton. Ample time is given for recreation and fishing, cricket, and games are enjoyed, also in company with Mr. White long walks are taken over the sand hills and along the beach. The happy, contented looks of these boys is testimony of tlie care and attention they receive.