ROTARY APPEAL BRINGS IN £l000.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19258, 20 December 1930, Page 30 (Supplement)

ROTARY APPEAL BRINGS IN £looo.

The street collection in connection with the Christchurch Rotary Club’s annual appeal for funds to provide poor families with Christmas cneer and comfort was held yesterday, and realised the excellent sum of £645. This brings the total amount raised by tlie appeal to date to £955, and there is still an open air concert to go. The organ recital given by Dr Edgar Ford realised £35, and donations amounted to £315. There are in Christchurch 1000 orphans, to whom it is hoped to give Is each as a Christmas present, and there are known to be 800 homes where assistance is badly required. It is hoped to deliver to each of these homes on Christmas Eve a hamper of necessaries for Christmas Day. No luxuries will be included in the hampers. No expenditure is being incurred either in the collection of the money or in the distribution of the goods. Rotarians and their friends are giving their services free, and the cars of the members of the Rotary Club will carry out the necessary transport. Last year the appeal realised approximately £6OO. A concert in the beautiful gardens of the Christchurch Hospital to-mor-row afternoon will be the finale of the Rotary Club’s Christmas appeal. There will be a great gathering of all the leading city bands, and the Royal Christchurch Musical Society will give selections from Handel’s immortal oratorio “The Messiah” and the opera “Cavalleria Rusticana.” The Musical Society will be accompanied by a full orchestra of nearly 200 performers. The leading city bands will march from Cathedral Square at 2.15 and will play en route to the Hospital, where they will give a massed bands performance. The following bands will take part:—The Christchurch Municipal, Woolston Brass Band, Derry’s Military Band and the Band of the Ist Canterbury Regiment (by kind permission of the officer commanding). The Musical Society will lead the singing of Christmas carols, in which the audience will also take part. Prior to the beginning of the performance Christmas carols by the great choirs of the world will be broadcast by radio gramophone. Citizens can look forward to a musical treat and a very enjoyable afternoon.