SHIPWRECK RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 149, 20 December 1929, Page 12

SHIPWRECK RELIEF

PRAISE FOR SOCIETY

COURAGEOUS WOMAN

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") DUNEDIN, This Day. To enable the men to travel north by the second express, the paying off of the Manuka's crew of 110 took place at the Marine Department's office. All the men were smartly dressed with tho outfits provided by the liberal grants from the Shipwreck Belief Society. '' Tho men are very grateful for what has been done for them," said the local superintendent (Captain Eraser), "and it has been a pleasure to do anything for them. The Shipwreck Society has done a great thing in the past two days, and Dunedin has every reason to feel proud that it has formed and maintained a society which by this act alone has shown that it has fulfilled the purpose for which it was formed. The public have often asked why the society should have such a big credit balance, but it would take only two disasters like that of the Manuka to completely wipe out the funds. The value of the society has been illustrated, and future appeals for funds are likely to receive very wide support." 4 ' GRAND EXAMPLE. Mrs. Legge, of Melbourne, was the gallant woman who won l^e admiration of all on the ship and the crew in her boat by her grand example of courage and cheer. When tho alarm was sounded Mrs. Legge, ivho was a second saloon passenger, and was accompanied by her three and a half year old daughter, Betty, picked up a roll of music and walked to the piano. "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old; Kit Bag was the number she struck up as the passengers were assisted by the stewards to dress and don their lifebelts. "And what would you like now?" she asked, and with another passenger turning the sheets of music she kept up a running strain of light music. In the boat she w&3 a cheerful companion. "She was worth a million pounds at a time like that," said a steward today. "Mrs. Legge was a most wonderful woman, and she kept everybody's spirits up. Throughout the night she was cheery, and she was still joking in the morning, although our boat was the last one to be picked up." "You could not have stopped her cheering everybody, even if you had hit her with a bar," said one. Another person for whom tho stewards had highest admiration was tho seaman in charge of No. 9 boat, 'who loaded his boat under extremely difficult conditions. Among the passengers was a cripple. .