SERVICE TO COMMUNITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24678, 6 August 1941, Page 10

SERVICE TO COMMUNITY

COMPLIMENTARY SOCIAL MR AND MRS DASH HONOURED (Special) • WAIMATE. Aug. 5. Accommodation in the Savoy Tearooms was taxed to capacity on the occasion of the social tendered to Mr and Mrs George Dash in recognition of their long years of service to the community. Many of joined in a spontaneous gesture of appreciation of the ability, energy and vision which had been so generously devoted to the service of Waimate and South Canterbury for many years past by Mr Dash, supported and assisted by Mrs Dash. Far from signifying a retirej ment from active service, however, the ; function connoted a continuance of ! effort as the principal gift was a portable typewriter, with which Mr Dash may maintain those activities which have resulted in making Waimate one of the best-known provincial towns in the Dominion. Mr Dash also received cheques from the Waimate Boy Scouts and the Waimate Bowling Club in recognition of help given, and a cheque was handed over for Mrs Dash so that she might purchase a memento of her work. Regret was expressed by the chairman (Mr S. I. Fitch) at the absence of Mrs Dash owing to ill-health. The chairman read r>, list of public offices held by Mr Dash, beginning with the secretaryship of the Mutual Improvement Society at the age of 16. He had given 36 years* service as honorary secretary of the Prohibition League, 25 years as a Justice of the Peace, 10 years as coroner, 10 years as child welfare officer, 20 years as a member of the South Canterbury Hospital Board, and 16 consecutive years as Mayor of Waimate. He had served on the boards-of the Timaru and Waimate High Schools, the Waimate Hospital Committee, the Waitaki Licensing Committee, the Advance'Waimate Association, and the South Canterbury Progress League, and had been secretary and president of the National Coachbuilders' Association,- and president of the New Zealand Garage Proprietors' Association, and chairman of the Waimate Repatriation Committee. He had .stood for Parliament in a " field " of five, at the age of 34. Eleven years of service had been given on the South Canterbury Power Board, of which he was at present chairman. The speakers were Messrs D. C. Kidd, member for Waitaki, Mr W. G. Tweedy (Mayor of Timaru and- a. former resident of Waimate), Dr E. C. Hayes, of Christchurch (a former Deputy Mayor of Waimate), Mr W. G. Paul (the present Deputy Mayor), J. Bitchener (chairman of the Waimate Countyi Council). H. G. Naylor (secretary of the South Canterbury Hospital Board). J. I. Hayman (representing the Justices of the Peace and the Methodist Church), M. Leadbetter (rector of the Waimate High School). G. R. Waters (legal profession), J; B. Sinclair (business community), B. S. Runciman (town clerk), S. I. Fitch (South Canterbury Power Board), and A. E. Lewis (Bowling Club). Mr Dash, in h,is reply, acknowledged the help he had received from his wife, and councillors, and from many others in 'the work of advancing Waimate and establishing among its residents a tradition of love and pride in the town. ' >