ALEXANDRA DAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19867, 13 August 1926, Page 12

ALEXANDRA DAY.

SALE OF FLOWERS. ROSES AND POPPIES. LARGE SUM REALISED. (FboJj Odb Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 2. June 30 was the first Alexandra Rose Day to bg held since the death of its gracious founder, and the whole populace of London seemed more than usually eager to make the day a financial success. Cars were decorated and so Were many, shop windows, large blooms being specially made for carrying out decorative devices. One the windows at New Zealand House was daintily set with rose trails, arranged as floral frames to the water colours of New Zealand scenes painted by Mrs F. N. Harvey (Napier). Very .early Lady Allen and her helpers were at their beat in the Strand, forking from New Zealand House to Charing Cross, including the interior, of the railway terminus. Lady Allen was doing this duty officially as the- High Commissioner’s wife, for the last time—a duty which she has carwed out without intermission since she came to London. She was at the office at 7.50 a.m., and she thinks her helpers experienced . a good day. Lady Liverpool was an early arrival at this New Zealand base, and the other helpers were—Mrs Bernard Myers, Mrs F. M. B. Fisher, Mrs Halkin, Mrs C E. Low, Mrs Selwyn Chambers, Mrs Brumfit, Mrs H. T. B. Drew, Mrs Mufchie, Mrs H. L. Friend, the Misses Brumfit, Watson, N. A. Bloxam, Maureen Raymond, M. Cruicksbank, C. Murray, Kirker, Myers (3), O'Brien. Russell, Russell, Halkin, M. Calder, Pringle, Tripp, Mudford, and Enid Fisher. Although Queen Mary took no active part in the day, she nodded and smiled encouragingly at a group of rose sellers when she drove through Hyde Park shortly after noon. • , ... It is recorded that the first roses to be put up for pale were auctioned on the stroke of midnight at the Savoy Hotel, and at Princes' Restaurant. In the former case Mbs Violet Lorraine wielded the hammer to such good purpose that nearly £l4O was won for the cause. Of this sum £SO wai paid by Viscount Rothermere for a basket of wonderful rubber roses, almost irtffistinguishable from teal blossoms. Mr Robert Hale, the well-known actor, auctioned at Princes’ Restaurant another basket of roses, which was sold three times — finally to the Maharajah of Mayurbhanji—and altogether realised £6l 15£ Not long after these transactions the first street sellers were stirring, and at 5.30 they were invading the police stations. IN DOWNING STREET. In Downing street, the Prime Minister was the first to buy a bunch of roses, and shortly afterwards .the sellers buttonholed”’ King Manoel of Portugal, and the Under-secertary for Dominion Affairs (the Earl of Clarendon). Other Cabinet Ministers arrived wearing roses, the Earl of Birkenhead had his car decorated. The First Lord of the Admiralty, the Right Hon. W. C. Bridgeman, bought a spray, which was blown away by the breeze. He gave chase and captured the flowers, to the applause of the onlookers. The President of the Board of Education, Lord Eustace Percy, was waylaid by a flower-seller, and, finding be had no money, borrowed from the Colonial Secretary, the Right Hon. L. S. Amery-. _ Danish ladies paid their tribute to the memory of the late Queen. Alexandra by selling roses from the stall of the Anglo-Danish Society from a beat in Kmghtsbridge. ‘ Miss Lilian Braithwaite and Miss Marie Lohr were among the group of theatrical stars at Harrods, and Mrs Kendal presided over the stall at Waring and Gillow’s. At the Ritz Hotel the arrangements were in the hands of tlie Marchioness of Townshend and Mrs Sotherst. Mrs Fanarger was in charge at the Mansion House, the chief depot for the City, and reported that the 150 ladies who were assisting' her' had " met with great success. The Lady Mayoress, who had as a maScot her miniature black-and-tan dog “Monkey,” had a stall outside the Walbrpok entrance to the Mansion House, and did a brisk business, and by 11 o’clock so generous had been the public that the whole of the Mansion House stock had beeh cleared. ... . THE QUEEN’S BOUQUETS AT ' CHRISTIE’S. Every year since its institution Alexandra Day has been worthily observed at Cnristie’s. As in 1925, two bouquets of real roses were sent by Queen, Mary from the gardens at Windsor, and Mr Lance Hannen, conducting a sale of furniture, and Mr W. B. Anderson, similarly holding a jewel sale, found an interval in which to offer the flowers to generous competition. Nurse Lytes-Clinton, ‘of the Children’s Hospital, carried the roses for Mr Hannen’s room, and the auctioneer himself won the first at lOOgns; his son, Mr Gordon Hannen, taking the second at SOgns. Mr Frank Partridge gave 60gns for two, and Messrs Knoedler won one at SOgns. Mrs Terence M'Kenna bade SOgns for a flower, and 25gns bidders were Mr Erhardt, Mr M. H. Harris, Mr Buttery, and Mr D; Croad Thomson;. Mr Nathan Mitchell and Mrs Munson paying 20gns. The combined effort- in both rooms yielded the goodly sum of £1538 ss. In the jewel room Messrs Agnew took the first rose of the bouquet carried by Nurse Kendall at lOOgns, and Mr Max Mayer followed with a bid of HOgns for the nest. Mrs W. B. Anderson, as in previous years, bought one at lOOgns, and Mrs Charles Agnew also won one at OOgns. Ready purchasers of 50gns roses were Mr Lionel Crichton, Mr Adolphe Weil, and Mr Hanesisch, of Paris; among the winners at 25gns being Mrs Terence M'Kenna (for the second time), Mr S. H. Harris, Mr N. Wisz, Messrs Jerwood and Ward, and Mr Edmund Phillips. A pleasing incident marked the offer of the last small bunch. Mr Anderson suggested that it was worth 20gns. A lady promptly offered this amount, and after an advance of sgns she won the cluster at SOgns; paying ■ for it immediately and asking to remain anonymous. EMBLEMS OF RUBB'ER. The Rubber Gifts Fund Committee of the Rubber Growers’ Association presented a number of rubber roses to be disposed of for the benefit of tho fund. There were single blooms comprising rosebuds, medium-sized roses, and full-blown flowers, and also button-holes. These were on sale in the Stock Exchange and the Rubber Market, Mincing lane, at both of which places bouquets of rubber roses and asparagus fern were auctioned during the day. In appearance, those roses might have been gathered in an old-world garden. They are delicately scented, and the texture of the material gives to the leaves and petals a close resemblance to the velvety feel -of the actual blossom. Mrs M'Garvie Munn, their inventor, presented a large basket, which was auctioned by Miss Violet Lorraine at the Savoy Hotel. £392,000 FOR POPPIES. The generous response to Earl Haig’s British Legion Appeal Fund on Armistice Day, 1925, the report of which has just been issued, has enabled flie fund to make arrangements for the further extension of the sale of wreaths and the placing of such wreaths on graves in Franco or Flanders. It is now possible to order any catalogued wreath and have it placed on a grave on the Western Front for the catalogue price, plus 2s 6d. A smaller wreath can be similarly dealt with for an inclusive charge of 10s. During the past five years tho proceeds of Poppy Day have been more than trebled. In 1921 the receipts were £106,000; in 1925 they wore £592,000. The demand for supplies was larger than in previous years. More than 24,000,000 poppies of various kinds were distributed to all parts of the world, besides immense quantities of posters, bills, leaflets, t badges, and lantern slides. The distributing arrangements, however, worked perfectly and smoothly. All poppies sold on Remembrance Day were made in tho British Legion Poppy Factory .where nearly 200 badly disabled men are in permanent employment for their manufacture. The total amount received under the heading “Overseas Collections” (excluding the great self-governing dominions) was practically double that of 1924. and an extract from the report shows that the enthusiastic support won by Poppy Day overseas is by no means confined to British people.