WANGANUI NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 45, 16 November 1922, Page 17

WANGANUI NOTES

(From our own correspondent.)

( ! ;.'■■. November 4. The Food Fair on Saturday last was a great- success, St. Mary's Convent grounds being a busy centre. And indeed it deserved to be a success from the amount of work put in by those helping. There had been preliminary efforts to raise funds —a social here, an evening there, and almost everyone carrying a handbag or a lead pencil for the last few weeks, was worth dodging. So'that tho various stalls were loaded with goods, and loaded too alas! with active workers. . Busy about tho stalls were: Mesdames Richardson and Coxon, afternoon tea which was served in the schoolroom; Mesdames Kitchen and ~O'Neill, Misses McTubbs, Clark, Willis; home-made sweets: Mesdames Green, Connor (2), Gordon, lluscoe, Irwin, Higgins. and-Doolan, produce and anything else they could get; Mesdames Anthony, O'Sullivan, Johnston, Dowdall, Treader, fancy goods and likewise a bit of everything; Mesdames O'Meara, Morton, Median, Jago, and Miss Cullinane, home-made cakes and bread; Mrs. S. Barry, soft drinks. In addition to these heads mentioned, there were scores of tails' old and young, attached to some stall or other and progress was difficult. In any caso there was nothing gained by progressing because there wa3 a jenny, an aunt sally, Christmas lambs, sides of bullocks, and goodness knows what not. Messrs. O'Meara, Redwood, Carmody, Coxon,- L. Fromont, Smith, O'Sullivan, Anthony, Stanton, Barry, .Holly, and others were busy enough, and tho Queen Alexandra Band, under Bandmaster Buckley, discoursed suitable music. The nett result will be somewhere about £3OO and everyone is happy.

' Wo seem to have got back into our ordinary stride now, have quite got over the-mission, and are busy getting ready for Christmas which will be upon us before Ave know where wo are. The Sistine Choir is not forgotten, nor is it likely to be if our boys Will continue to join in the singing of the Benediction as they did on last Tuesday afternoon. They have such good voices these boys,, but they got into the lazy habit of Getting the girls do all the singing. However, it must bo since hearing tho Sistine Choir that they have heard for themselves what,a choir of mens voices eon, sound like, and now they -are going to give the girls a run lor their money. Wo have material enough for a, real good combined choir whenever there is singing to do, and if they cannot combine, they should try to take turn about.

Advance Parakiuo, and don’t be surprised if v that settlement up-river has electric light before • Wanganui gets it. The Maoris at Parakiuo wanted’ a water supply', and not unlike their whit© brethren sat down and talked the matter over for a few years. However, last year, Father Ginisty got' down to facts and figures, and in his capacity of an official member of the Wanganui Maori Council, was able to persuade the Maoris to start - a Cooperative Store with the idea, of using the profits thereof to help pay the cost of installing the water. Now the water supply is an established fact in all the dwellings, cowsheds, gardens, etc., and some have a hot water service also. On the slope, of one of the hills near the Pah there is a spring which the Natives'-knew, to -.be a reliable one in summer, and this spring has been'boxed in.. The water is carried, to .four 600-gallon tanks acting as reservoir (a. concrete reservoir was out of the question), set- in, a : position at an altitude, of 250 feet above the Pah, and; is dis-

tributed from the. reservoir to the various' points. The supply is quite good—about" 150 gallons per hour for a, population of 80 people. The Government has made .a. grant of £25 for tho scheme, and the remaining £95 of tho cost will bo borne by the Co-operative Store £SO, the Parakino Natives £2O, and the Maori Council £2O. Rev. Father Ginisty and Mr. Pargeter, Health Officer for the district, went up last week to see the work and the inspector congratulated the Maoris on having one of tho best supplies on the river. The work was well and faithfully done by Mr. Chadwick, of Koriniti, and the Maoris are pleased indeed with tho result. Mr. Tanginoa "and other members of the council,- as spokesmen for the Maoris, thanked Father Ginisty for the interest he took in them, and also thanked Mr. Pargeter for the practical- advico given them on details pertaining to matters of health. The many friends of Mrs. T. F. Kiely, Durie Hill, will be pleased to know that she is well again after her serious illness, Mrs. E. Fremont, sen., of Aromoho, is in hospital just now, she having had the misfortune to break her leg. Just a. siniplo accident. Mrs. Fremont was hurrying across her own garden, when she twisted her foot and fell heavily, breaking her leg. Mrs. Percy' Benefield, of Aramoho, is also in hospital. There is much sickness about, an epidemic of measles, but so far it has not been found necessary to close the schools.