Call to save Anniversary Day

Two sets of triple expansion engines for the government steamer Earnslaw. The engines, which will develop over 1000 horsepower, were designed and built throughout by John McGregor and Company's Otago Foundry, Dunedin. - Otago Witness, 21.2.1912.

Sir, - There is a matter of great interest to a very large number of our working population in the city which has my sympathy and support in obtaining - the closing of business premises on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Monday, so that there may be a continuous holiday of four days. There is a but in the question, however, - not at the expense of Anniversary Day, March 23.

Such a proposition rouses the indignation and opposition of every early settler of Otago, and should not be supported by any shop assistant who is a descendant of an early settler or by any one of them who has been born in Otago. By them the 23rd March should be held in as high respect as the 4th of July is by an American.

Would the 1st of July do to commemorate the 4th of July to an American citizen?

No; emphatically, no. Then, why should the Anniversary Day of Otago, the birthday of the settlement, be changed to April? - say, the 1st, and thereby make a "fool's-day" of it.

"Lives there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself has said, This is my own, my native land."

Let the shop assistants be patriotic, and not try to "turn down" the day of all days in Otago - the day which marks the age of Otago: the day on which to look back and see what progress we, as a community, have made; the day on which we should lay ourselves out to do honour to the "Pilgrim Fathers" of this portion of the Dominion. All honour to the memory of the "early pioneer settlers," and may Anniversary Day flourish.

- I am, etc., 1860.

• A change in the proprietorship of the Alexandra Herald has taken place.

Mr T. H. Cahill, who for the past seven years has ably occupied the dual position of proprietor and editor of our vigorous goldfields contemporary, has disposed of the Herald to Mr J. J.

Ramsay, well-known to Central Otago residents. Some few years ago Mr Ramsay acted as editor of the Taieri Advocate, and has been a frequent contributor to our correspondence columns as well as to various provincial papers. His numerous friends throughout the province will be pleased to hear of this journalistic undertaking, and will all join in wishing him success as editor and proprietor of the Herald. The change takes place as from 1st prox.

• A very handsome and appropriate window to the memory of the late Mrs A. W. Morris has just been erected in First Church by the family of the deceased lady. The Rev. G. H. Balfour, who has just returned after six weeks' absence from Dunedin, preached a most impressive sermon on Sunday morning from the words of Luke xvii, 10: "We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do." Before closing the service he called attention to the new memorial window which had been placed in the church. The family of Mrs A. W.

Morris, he said, had placed it there in affectionate remembrance of their mother, who was a member of First Church from 1857 to 1910 - 53 years.

The window was a beautiful one, both in colour and design. The colouring was subdued and restful.

The idea expressed was that of "Charity". A woman was giving of her sympathy and substance to the poor, the halt, the hungry, the maimed, and the little child. Those of them who knew Mrs Morris so well would at once see the appropriateness of the symbolism. For they knew her as a mother in Israel of strong faith and large heart.

- ODT, 20.2.1912.