WINTER FUNDS CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20620, 19 July 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

WINTER FUNDS CAMPAIGN.

viiniiiHHiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiniHiiiiHiiiiiiiminiiiK f Our Great Objective £7C 0 0 | i Tctal to Date .. .. 57 0 6 | | Still Wanted .. .. £l2 19 6 | fdiiiiiiniiiHiiiiiiiniHiiiimiiiijimiimiiiimiimiHiHiifc

You will see from the above, what a prompt and generous responso there has been to my request for a grand objective of £7O for our two-months' campaign. I really think now we shall get it—only £l3 in two weeks' time and we shall have established a new record for the Brigade!

Many thanks, dear boys and girls, for tho collecting cards and other subscriptions sent in this week, also all other generous friends who arc helping!

There are ever so many interesting little things to tell yon to-day—rny great pleasure at receiving a £5 note for the Winter Comforts Fund from a good friend in New Plymouth, and the visit of Mrs. Ohms, who gave an afternoon at which the guests subscribed £1 8s 6d. Several other ladies are going to hold similar afternoons, so it all makes me very hopeful of ending up with that £7O total! I was called to the telephone last Monday, and a voice at tho other end told me something very interesting, how the children of tho Otahuhu Methodist Sunday School had had a vegetable " drive " the day beforo in aid of the Manna House. They brought all kinds of nice fresh vegetables to Sunday School, with tho result that tho carrier took two sacksful to the Manna House on Monday. Sister Esther said that would bo enough for over 400 dinners, or two days' supply, for we must remember that over 2CO men are served with dinner every day. On Monday there were no less than 250, so you can imagine what a lot of meat and vegetables are required every day! " The Veterans."

I must now tell you about some of the men who go to titer Manna House for a meal. First of all there is the poor old man I told you about last week. Sister wrote and told me he had been given a good pair of boots, a nice outfit of warm clothing, and his train faro home, so there would be no more 20-mile walks. There is also an old man with a long grey beard like Santa Claus, who goes to the Manna House every day. Ho lives all alono in a little room, and has a great weakness for a really good cup of tea, so every day he sits at a special table, and the good workers give him a pot of tea all to himself. He has no ono in the world to look after him, and greatly appreciates the kind and friendly atmosphere of the Manna House. I wonder what that old lonely man will do when it closes? The first day I went to the Manna House I saw a voting man, little more than a lad, carefully feeding a wee baby boy. His wife was in hospital, Eister sai'd. Sho now writes that the wife is dead . . . What a tragedy for that poor, young father, left with his first child! Some of these cases arc so pitiful that they make your heart ache, and one trembles to think what might happen were there no Christian hearts to be touched by these stories of hardship and tragedy. , , . . I must just repeat the closing lines of Sister's letter: "We are wonderfully cheered by your reports in ' Boys and Girls' each week, dear Miss Morton. Under your guidance the children have done wonderfully well. May God bless them nil

Winter Comforts Fund. During tho week I took a cheque for £ls to Nurse, and sho was delighted. She, too, is finding much hardship and want among her poor old people, and much terrible suffering to add to their troubles. She told me of three old people; all over seventy, a man and his two sisters, who ure living in rooms, in great poverty. One of the old ladies is d\ ing of an incurablo disease, and they all suffered greatly from cold and privation beforo nurse heard of them. Now she has sent a fine load of coal and firing, and tho £ls I took to her will establish the special fund I told you about for the old people suffering from incurable disease who need constant attention and many small comforts, Food and firing have also been sent to that old man of eighty, of whom I have written before, nearly blind, whose wife and daughter are dead, and who is now living all alone. I often go ami see him. and he is always so proud I d pleased when ho fills the kettle anu invites me to sit down to a cup of tea, and so full of admiration for the boys and girls who aro doing such good Christian work for the poor and unfortunate! Some nice parcels of clothing for the Comfort Ship have been sent to Nurse, in eluding soino very acceptable woollies and warm dresses for the children. The parcels are from the following (two weeks): —Aunts Emily and Mill, Cam, M.P., Eleanor, I. E.G., Maty, Kaukapakapa, H.E.H., Gisborne, Kathleen Whitaker, Gran, and E.L.8., J.E.W., Epson., Jean Carlv, Marguerite, Ba.ibara and .Jeanno Du Pontet. Nan and Kathleen; M.K.M.; Aunts Etnilv and Mill; 11.E.1L, Gisborne; Mary tapley; Grandma, Tauranga; "Tho Far North,"; and A Grandma. The week's donations nre as follows: — £ p. d. Mrs. E. Smith, New Plymouth 5 0 0 Proceeds Mrs. E. M. Ohm's Afternoon 18 6 L.B 10 0 No Name 10 0 Collected by Lorna Finlayson . . 10 0 Collected by Lydia Dassler - . 10 0 Collected by Kathleen Whitaker (second cord) . . • • 7 6 Aunts Emily and Mill . • • • 5 0 Eleanor, Mary and Peter . . 5 0 A Friend, Opotiki . . • • 4 0 Maruaret, Barbara and Jeanno Du Pontet p 0 Daphne and Myrtlo . • • • ® The Syndicate . . »* • • 2 0 £lO 17 6 Previously acknowledged . . 46 3 0 Total to dato . . . . £57 0 6