A LIFE OF SERVICE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 16, 13 October 1932, Page 5

A LIFE OF SERVICE

Late Mrs. A. E. Dexter CHARITABLE WORK IN WANGANUI Dominion Special Service. Wanganui, Oct. 12. The loss of Mrs. A. E. Dexter, a prominent Wanganui social worker, was referred to at the meeting of the Wanganui City Council last night, when the mayor, Mr. N. G. Armstrong, moved that an appreciation of her valuable services to the city be recorded and messages of sympathy be forwarded to her relatives. Mr. Armstrong said that Mrs. Dexter’s special mission in life had been the relief of distress in the city. As her work spread from small beginnings she became known and loved until she was a great force in charitable work in Wanganui. During the depression she had been an enthusiastic worker, a great helper and adviser. Councillor E. O’Meara said that Mrs. Dexter would be remembered for many years for her wonderful work during the Napier earthquake disaster. Her assistance in placing boys on farms had been appreciated by the committee, which realised how much she was able to advise and help. She was a good business woman and the city would be much poorer for her going.

The Wanganui City Council has been joined in the action which the Wanganui County Council is taking against the hospital board to decide whether the current levy shall be paid on the basis of new valuations, or on the valuations which were in force before the levy was made. At a meeting of the City Council last night the mayor, Mr. N. G. Armstrong. said that he hnd instructed the city solicitor to appear in the interests of the city.

Miss Audrey Williams, of Masterton, has returned from a holiday visit to England.

at Papawai with, a couple of thousand sovereigns. Before he had . made any statement, a Native spokesman declared that they had decided io make a present of the Wairarapa Lake to the Government. As Mr. Carroll knew that when a Native makes a present he expects an equivalent iu return, the £2OOO were paid over to them, and they were also given a block of land somewhere in the Taupo district. Celebration at Pigeon Bush. "To celebrate the settlement the Maoris gave a picnic at Pigeon Bush to which all the settlers interested were invited. The Premier (Mr. -S’eddou) was also one of the guests. They gave us a very good picnic, and we iu return did our best to give them a satisfactory one. a little later. We provided a bullock for the occasion, which was cooked in a Kapa Maori. Air. Carroll and I sat together and much enjoyed the meal. Later in the day Mr. Carroll got up a race between the Premier (Mr. Seddon) and the heaviest Native present. Mr. Seddon weighted 16 stone and the Native 18. The Premier conceded him two yards in fifty (weight for age perhaps) and won. but his trainer, Mr. Carroll, whispered to me..‘Did yon notice the old man, he was just about done?’ Mr. Seddon, the I'eg. “Mr. Seddon. in the course of a speech afteitwards, said when he became Native Minister he found the Natives of the Wairarapa • were suffering under a gross injustice. He further said that the Natives wished him to drive a peg at the shore of the lake to commemorate the settlement, ■ then'striking his breast dramatically he exclaimed, ‘I am the peg, there is no necessity for me to go to the lake.’ Thus the trouble came to an end.” In concluding his account (which was taken down by Mr. N. (’. Shepherd, of Featherston), the late Air. Matthews paid a tribute to those settlers (particularly Air. James Donald, the first ehairman of the river board), who had helped to' bring about a settlement of the problem, also the Natives who “played the game as they saw it, vigorously and yet with restraint, in a truly sporting spirit. The work of dealing with Ibe outlet of the lake has always been a troublesome matter,” he said, “hut more especially when scoops wore not obtainable and the work had to be carried out with shovels only.