WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.

Northern Advocate, 3 September 1919, Page 3

WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.

MONTHLY MKKTIWG

The usual meeting was held in the Baptist Church yesterday at 2.45 p.m. Mi's Whalley, the president., took the chair. There was a good and enthusiastic number present.

Mrs Galpin was thanked for the splendid service rendered ast the annual convention at JNapier.

It was decided to start a fund for the purpose of sending- a delegate to the next convention, Mrs Ga'lpin very generously heading the iist in a substantial manner.

A sale of flowers'; plants), fruit, cakes, sweets, etc., is to be arranged —the date oi which will be duly advertised. It was also decided to ask the ladies of the "Young Woman's Movement" to .arrange a concert for the same fund, etc., . > The co-operation of all members v.as asked to make success a sure thing, and a big attendance at the next meeting would do much to ensure this. The members bought extra copies of the "White Ribbon" Convention number for distributions.

The jHawera Acclimatisation Society have now liberated all the yearlings from last year's rearings, and are now 'liberating fry in the various streams. During l , the past few weeks they have set free no less than 150,000.

Speaking on rural housing in 'Edinburgh, Lord Lovatt sadd there were sti'U many cases in which cattle and men entered the house by the same door. Hundreds of crofts had only a blanket or wooden partition between the room and the "byre." Such conditions did not exist anywhere else in.; Western Europe, not even in fcussia. The f richest landowner— namely, the State-was the .greatest offender, for of 157 cases of cattle ■housed under the same ro«f as men 104 were on property of the State.

The Customs Department has published the details of the method of obtaining preferential rates or duties on the products of the Empire, commencing as from Monday last. Whether from bonded stocks or on importation, the imported must produce a certificate of origin from the manufacturer or grower and exporter. Preferential duties will only be claimable on manufactured articles if 25 per cent, of the cost is due to labour within the Empire, except in the case of tobacco 'and sugar, of which the portion of the cost has been fixed at five per cent.

The Bgmont Box Company records an income of £38,393 on the year's working and a profit of £546. The chairman intimated that the neoessity for the use of some substitute for white pine bid not been overlooked by the directors. If they wished to conserve their supplies they would probably have to use sap totara and red pine for the battens for cheese crates. Experiments were being made with veneering and other methods by which, it was hoped to conserve their supplies of white pine. They hoped that Mr Murdoch, who was looking into this matter during his visit to America and Europe, would have something to t«ll them when he re-turned.

"I dread to think what may happen in the rebuilding o* England if beauty is left out of count. But it is not only a question of aesthetics. Pride in his .material things contributes to the creation of the good citizen. Politicians do not seem to realise that environment has a political aa well as a moral value. Collective building on a large scale is merely a question of getting right materials, and if schemes are rushed through because of economic considerations, and England is peppered all over with buildings of a machine-made similarity, then we shall not only get a disfigured England, but we shaJl miss the chance of getting a finer type of citizen. We are really at a turning point at our history. Shall we take the right turning?"— Harold Begbie.

Recently Sir Harry Lauder and Lady Lauder visited Long Bay penitentiary, Sydney, where the former sang to 400 inmates (men and women). A Sydney paper says that it was good to see the grim, sad faces of these poor human derelicts become wreathed in smiles, the prelude to uproarious laughter, as the great little comedian sang his inimitable songs and told his dry Scotch stories. There was a touch of pathos, too, -when Lauder sang a simple little mcl* ody, "There's Someone Waiting for You," and the refrain was taken up gently at first, for more than one throat was choked with sobs. But Lauder with that wonderful sympathy of understanding of human nature which more than anything else haa made him great, interpolated a few words of encouragement, and the audience rose to him as one man. (Lady Lauder sang old Scottish ballads to the accompaniment of one of the prisoners—a man who held the IHploma of the London College of Music. -At the conclusion a prisoner from the audience—doing a long sentence for burglary—walked on to the -platform and played ''Auld Lang Syne," after the manner of the artist born, and it was sung with a fine swing.