Generous financial support for ambulance

A splendid crop of Northern Star potatoes was grown on this paddock by Mr George Anderson of Inch Clutha - Otago Witness, 27.7.1910.
A splendid crop of Northern Star potatoes was grown on this paddock by Mr George Anderson of Inch Clutha - Otago Witness, 27.7.1910.
Roxburgh, being 40 miles from a railway, and without hospital facilities, recently decided to acquire an ambulance waggon for the Teviot medical district (of which Roxburgh is the centre).

A sum of about £120 was wanted - £90 for a waggon and £30 for a shed - but the residents of the district supported the project so generously that £179 was collected.

The Roxburgh Borough Council offered a choice of two sites for the shed, and it was proposed to vest the waggon in the council, to hold it in trust and use it for the benefit of the people of the district.

The Rev M. A. Rugby Pratt, secretary of the committee which had collected the money, wrote, however, to last night's meeting of the Otago Hospital Board asking whether the board would take over the ambulance, agree to undertake its upkeep for all time, and use it for the benefit of the people of the district; and whether the board could secure a Government subsidy of 24s for each 20s raised locally, such subsidy together with the Ambulance Committee's surplus funds, to be ear-marked and employed by the board for the erection of a cottage hospital in Roxburgh district.

The board referred the letter to its Finance Committee for a report.

• It is anticipated that within the next four weeks the new theatre, which is being erected by the Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association in the Octagon, and which is to be occupied by West's Proprietary (Ltd), will be under construction.

The building, as shown by the plans prepared by Mr E. W. Walden, architect, will be of brick throughout, and will be 150ft long and 52ft wide.

The main hall on the ground floor will be 52ft wide and 120ft long, and will be divided into stalls and pit, and will have seating accommodation for, roughly, 1000 persons.

The circle above will seat about 300 persons.

The building is being designed essentially for the exhibiting of moving pictures, and will not contain any stage, provision simply being made at the end of the hall for the erection of the curtain on which the pictures are projected.

The front of the building will be of plain but bold design, carried out in brick and plaster, with stucco facings, with a handsome verandah extending over the footway.

Separate entrances from the street will be provided for pit, stalls, and circle.

The building, which will be absolutely fireproof, will be known as the "King's Theatre."

- ODT, 30.7.1910.