IN TOWN AND OUT

Southland Times, Issue 22008, 6 May 1933, Page 6

IN TOWN AND OUT

NEWS OF THE DAY Anniversaries. Twenty-three years ago to-day King Edward VII died. To-morrow is the eighteenth anniversary of the torpedoing of the Lusitania. ♦ » * » School Holidays. The primary and secondary schools of Invercargill broke up yesterday for the first term holidays. The expresses yesterday brought a number of boarders in northern schools home for the holidays. The Arcade. The demolition of the old Arcade buildings is steadily proceeding. Yesterday workmen had the unenviable task of knocking off the bricks from the top of the ruins. Pedestrians in Esk street had to walk well clear of the footpath (which was roped off) and adjoining roadway or they ran the risk of injury from falling debris. Council Election. In response to an inquiry yesterday the returning officer (Mr W. F. Sturman) informed a reporter that the only task to complete in connection with the election was the re-count of the voting for council candidates. Good progress had already been made with this, and so far as indications pointed there was not likely to be any change in the personnel of the council as announced after Wednesday’s count. There might, however, be changes in the position of the candidates. Winter Show. Arrangements are well in hand for the Southland A. and P. Association’s Winter Show which is to be held in the Drill Hall on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. The secretary (Mr A. L. Adamson) has been working industriously with a view to ensuring that the same success attends this show as has been the case with its predecessors. The entries, although showing a small decrease on those of last year, are nevertheless very satisfactory, and indeed most of the more important sections show an increase. For instan’ce, there is an increase of 26 in the hams and bacon class and 25 in the vegetables. It is expected that exhibits in the root crop sections will be very good this year. The trades displays promise to be most interesting and varied. * * ♦ » Air Cents. A refreshing story of a little American newsboy whose great ambition was to travel by air from Los Angeles to New Y’ork was related to a Times reporter by Miss D. Paterson who was in Southern California when the incident occurred. So keen was the boy to go by air that.every cent he could spare went into a sack which served the purpose of a money box. At the end of five years he had saved enough for the return trip. He staggered with his sack full of cents to the office of the aerial transport company in Los Angeles and asked for a return ticket. A clerk began to count the coppers. By the time she had reached 1000 she realized that long before she had emptied the sack the plane would have left, so she gave the youngster his ticket and away he sped in the air-liner. The counting she could do at her leisure. On his arrival in New York the boy was interviewed and photographed by newspapermen and generally made a great fuss of. Then he flew back. His drcam was realized. He became the little newsboy again. Waianiwa School.

The Waianiwa School was opened in the first week of May, 1863, and the fact was emphasized at the term breakup held at the school yesterday afternoon by the attendance of a goodly number of ex-pupils. Mr William Grieve, president of the recently formed Ex-pupils and Teachers’ Association, briefly addressed the assembled scholars and handed to Mr Andrew Ronald, chairman of the School Committee, a handsome enlargement of the decade groups taken at the golden jubilee in February last. The gift was suitably acknowledged and the association thanked. The assemblage then proceeded to the lawn in front of the infant school where some beautiful evergreen ribbonwood, donated by the president and the secretary (Mr Daniel Macpherson) were planted by them, assisted by Mr James Lindsay Wilson, one of the earliest pupils of the school. Cheers for the association were heartily given by the pupils. The senior room at the school with its gallery ot ex-headmasters, Mr James Wilson, the first chairman, and the jubilee groups, is now most fittingly furnished, and the school must be one of the best equipped, both inside and out, among Southland schools.

The Relief Depot. During a conversation with Mr L. Harrison Jones, who is connected with the local Relief Depot, a Times reporter was informed that money was urgently needed for the Mayor’s Relief Fund. The position is that the depot will be open on the 13th and 19th of this month for the distribution of goods as usual. It is intended to alter the system as soon as possible from a free issue to one whereby the men will be sold coupons enabling them to get their goods cheaply at local shops. It has been found that it will not be possible to make the change-over by the week after next and so the present system will remain in force in the meantime. To purchase the necessary groceries and bread for this issue will cost approximately £lOO and there is not that much money in the fund, so that anyone who feels inclined to make a donation is asked to do so at once. A hundred pounds seems a lot of money, but out of that amount all that a man with six children and over will get is one pound of butter, four pounds of sugar, six pounds of flour, two loaves of bread and a piece of meat—not very much for a big family. Although it seems likely that the Government will make a weekly contribution of money to the depot, so far nothing has been received from that quarter and even if the depot fund is augmented in this way it will not be enough in itself to carry on the work at the depot on the scale that is desired. Relief committees in northern towns that have had Government assistance for some time past have found it necessary to rely on donations from generous citizens to bring up the weekly income to the required amount, and this will be the position in Invercargill.