NEW ZEALAND GIFTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21818, 22 November 1940, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND GIFTS

Mrs lan Gebbie (nee Honor Carswell), in writing to her parents in Dunedin, tells of the joy of women workers in London on receiving cases of clothing, etc., from New Zealand. She says: “I’ve joined the Women’s Voluntary Service, and am helping at a clothing relief centre in a distressed area, about half an hour’s walk from where we live. It is hard work, which has been calling for more helpers for ages. I work from 11 till 5 each day, and have a cnack lunch at the canteen for 10 minutes or so. We just don’t stop all day. The clothes sent in must be sorted and tidied and then distributed to each family as required. The W.V.S. also helps with the evacuating of the homeless—there’s the siren, must turn off the gas! Now to continue, this district is flatfish, the depot is minus most of its windows, and I guess it will be cold here in the winter. We get terribly dirty and dusty, but tie up our heads and wear green W.V.S. overalls. We can easily wash the rest of us when we get home, which is more than lots of the poor homeless can do. As a side line, we blow a few little noses and assist in making the babies comfortable. “It will interest you, I know, to hear that I’ve unpacked lots of parcels of the loveliest clothes, labelled ’With love from New Zealand." They have come from Auckland to Queenstown, and are all very well made and so beautifully clean. The baby clothes from New Zealand are simply adorable, and I just wish you could see the joy and delight of the poor, miserable little mothers, when they are given the pretty, cosy woollies for their babies. You have no idea how badly they need these things, as so many of them come up from the shelters and And homes and everything gone. “There is a great need for flannelette squares for babies, and small trousers for three-year-old boys. “We don’t bother much about clothes ourselves, these days, as our siren suits, made of dull blue frieze, are warm and comfortable, and easily donned in a hurry. It is weeks since I slept in a bed, but I and my mattress are now boon companions. It is marvellous how we manage to sleep soundly on the floor of a basement.”