AUCKLAND GARMENTS SPARE AGED IN ENGLAND COUPONS AND QUEUES

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1948, Page 9

AUCKLAND GARMENTS SPARE AGED IN ENGLAND COUPONS AND QUEUES

(P.A.) Auckland, Jan. 13. The destitute have been aided, young children have in some cases received their first new frock or shirt, and the infirm and aged have been spared something of the strain of queues and coupons as a result of a gift of over 1500 garments sent from Auckland to Britain. Bales of clothing, most of which was new, filled the empty spaces of a packing case containing a large refectory table manufactured in Auckland for Lord Bledlsloe to present to. the Royal Empire Society. Lord Bledlsloe obtained the table to replace a similar furnishing destroyed during air raids on Britain. It was suggested that the space in the packing case could be filled with clothing for needy persons, and 12 Auckland organisations and individual donors contributed the garments. Received in Britain by the Royal Empire Society, they were despatched to Durham, Gloucester and Fulham for distribution. Some of the human problems created by the Spartan post-war life of Britain are reflected In letters of thanks and acknowledgement which have now been received by the maker of the table. Mr. Wallis, of Mount Eden. Some are from men and women who played a part In the distribution of the gifts. Others are simple and direct expressions of gratitude, often written in a quavering hand on brief sheets of notepaper, from old or infirm people who have benefited. Three bales of clothing wpnt to the Hon. Hester Alington, wife of the Dean of Durham, Dr. C. A. Alington. Her comment lyas: "I really feel quite unable to express all the gratitude that this wonderful gift arouses. Ido not think I have been able to send such happpiness to others in all my life.” While workers sorted and repacked the gift in the dining room of the deanery, a room that was used as a dormitory for monks in the 12th century, two doctors and two clergymen drew up a list of recipients horn the most needy families in the city. In addition, 30 parcels were chosen for very old pensioners of the Cathedral who were living alone ano who found it very difficult to get anything warm in the way of clothing. "Coupons and queues,” it was stated, "worried them dreadfully.” Letters from the recipients themselves add to the picture. An elderly woman describes how her grandson, whose parents are invalids, grasped a new shirt from New Zealand “with the same pleasure as if it were a £5 note." The headmistress of a special school wrote of the children's thrill of “wearing a pretty dress or jumper for the first time in their lives.” She riemarked that had the New Zealanders seen the joy on the children’s faces they would have been amply repaid for their kindness. Similar experiences were related by the warden of Bishop Creighton House, a residential settlement in the Fulham district of London which was a badly blitzed suburb during the war. One of the coats found an owner on the day the parcels were unpacked. A small boy had lost his coat at school. His father was a tuberculosis patient and the family was almost destitute. The mother coy Id not have replaced the coat, and with the weather bitterly cold the new garment was rushed to the child’s home.