ARIA.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3399, 28 July 1932, Page 7

ARIA.

(Own Correspondent.) On Saturday afternoon the annual meeting of the guarantors of the Aria Hall Society took place, Mr. J. A. Thomson presiding. The hon. secretary and treasurer, Mr. F. Davidson, presented the balance sheet, which showed all interest charges to have been met out of income, plus a reduction in the bank overdraft, which was considered most satisfactory in view of the times. The question of charges for the use of the hall was gone into and the meet ing decided to leave them as they are. It was, however, felt that something was necessary to liquidate the debt to the bank more rapidly than hitherto. Votes 'of thanks to Mr. Davidson for his whole-hearted interest in the hall, and also to Mr. and Mrs. Reid for so kindly supervising the hall, were carried by acclamation. The officers for the past year were re-elected en bloc. It was decided to grant the Aria Public Library the use of the hall for library purposes at a nominal rental for six months and to allow them to build a separate room on the hall section if they desire to do so. Following this meeting came one convened by Mr. J. B. Woods, president of the Aria Sub-Branch of the R.S.A., to discuss with the general public the erection of a memorial to the 21 men from the Aria district who died in the Great War. Mr. Woods stressed the fact that the memorial should come from the general public and not from the R.S.A. After some argument it was decided to push on with a scheme whereby the memorial should take the form of a Memorial Library, the far end of the room to be in the form of a shrine to commemorate

Aria's dead. Mr. Henderson's offer of £lO worth of timber was accepted Monaghan (3), Griffin Amy Smith, with gratitude. A committee was set up by the civilians present to consist of Messrs. J. Collins, C. J. Riddle and A. R. Keighley. The site suggested is between the Aria Hall and Mr. Zadey's bakehouse section, facing the main road. The R.S.A. was requested to nominate three members, and the Aria Public Library any number up to three. The monthly meeting of the Aria Sub-Branch of the Te Kuiti Returned Soldiers Association took place on Saturday evening in the Aria headquarters, Mr. J. B. Woods being in the chair. Inward and outward correspondence was more voluminous than usual, but contained much that was of interest to the audience. Mr. Nicol, hon. secretary, reported a profit of £5 13s. from the saleyards booth, whilst Mr. Reeve-Smith presented the accounts for the annual ball, which showed a profit of £4 13s. The Association has therefore a nucleus fund for l'elieving the distress amongst needy "diggers." Every penny of this money is spent in relief of genuine cases with not one halfpenny charge for administration. By this the general public will know that their contributions in the shane of money to buy food at the saleyards and tickets for the ball are put to the utmost use. The hon. secretary reported further new members and "possibles" and trusts that before long he will be able to report a membership of 50. Even that number will not satisfy such a Scot as Mr. Nicol, whose work on behalf of the Association is greatly appieciated. A committee consisting of Messrs. Woods, Piercy and Helms was elected to serve on the War Memorial Committee. It # was hoped the Librai*y would nominate their representatives quickly so that progress might be made in starting the Memorial. It was decided to support the Taumarunui R.S.A. in trying to secure the return of Mr. Sandison, of Ohura, as Crown tenants' representative on the Taranaki Land Board at the coming election, as it is felt that the interests of returned soldiers on the land need more vigorous support than they have had. The week-end football was thrill- j ing and at times strenuous. This no ; doubt was due to the fact that the teams were playing in the local cup competition. Aria Old Boys beat Paraheka by 14 points to 6, whilst Aria got home against Rira by 6 points to 5. Mr. M. Maata refereed the former game, whilst Mr. F. O'Sullivan ably controlled the latter match. The fact that 60 men of varying ages turned out to play on one day shows that the population of the Aria district is in no way decadent. Even then there were numerous young men looking on and ready to nlay if their services were required.