THE GIRLS AND THE BOXES. TO-DAY'S COLLECTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 106, 31 October 1908, Page 5

THE GIRLS AND THE BOXES. TO-DAY'S COLLECTION.

There may be places in Wellington where it is possible to avoid an ambulance box, with a. smiling girl at tho business end of it, but they are -mostly inaccessible. Tho eky is grey to-day, but there is brightness on a level with the eyes for aJI who care to gne a little for it. About a hundred girls are waging war against man in Wellington to-day, and the battery of merry ©yes is making him pay tribute in specie — moderately. The campaign began at 8.30, and by 12.30 the total cash recorded at the Town Hall was only £40, but the ladies who had gone out to reap the golden harvest had not all brought in their sheaves. Actually the nearest approach to gold was a "widow's mite," a burnished farthing. By 12.30 on last year's collection, day thrqe or four sovereigns and half sovereigns lay on the table, and tho aggregate was much greater than to-day's. However, time remains for the people to be generous, for the boxes will be abroad till 8.30 this evening, perhaps later. The penny this morning was the most popular contribution. The £40 haul included £4 10s in copper (about 1100 coins, including half -pennies), £5 16s in threepenny-pieces, £11 in sixpences, £12 in shillings, and rhe Dalance in florins and half-crowns. The lieivie.<=t dox was on* containing £5 2s 9£d, brought in shortly after 10 o'clock. A splendid example was set near the bailors' Rest by the "waiters," the men who look for work on the wharves and do not always find' it. The men formed a cordon around two girls, and the fair ones were not eager to escape, for the men of slendei resources weie uiging one another to "shell out," and the sixslling went ou merrily.