It was the fourth annual occasion that the Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association of Otago took a day off, and used their salesmanship abilities in Dunedin’s streets for the good of unfortunate persons unable to do for themselves. The response that citizens gave was recompense for the organisation and work entailed. Slim figures and figures not quite so slim were attired in pierrots’ costumes plus make-up and there was good nature and all-round cheerfulness evident when "victims" were cornered and sold shilling tickets which entitled the purchaser to sundry goods. Donation of articles were made by many business men and 26,000 parcels were ready when action for the day started. At the end of activities the majority had been disposed of in exchange for shillings from the citizens’ pockets. Without a doubt the day was a great success. The charities that will benefit by yesterday’s endeavour which resulted in £1350 being collected are the Salvation Army (three-fifths), the Citizens’ Relief Committee (one-fifth) and the Commercial Travellers’ Blind Soldiers and Sailors’ fund (one-fifth).
Plunket quashes infant deaths
The eighteenth annual meeting of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children drew a large assemblage of representative ladies and gentlemen to the Council Chamber yesterday afternoon. The number of mothers and babies admitted to and resident in the Karitane-Harris Hospital this year was 373, as compared with 270 last year. Visits paid by the nurses to homes this year was 9928, as compared with 8921 last year; and the visits of adults and babies to the society’s rooms this year was 13,211, whereas last year the number was 12,726. The number of bottles of humanised milk sent out by the society in conjunction with the Taieri and Peninsula Milk Supply Co this year was 67,396, as compared with 75,186 last year. The decrease this year possibly was accounted for by the nurses teaching mothers to make humanised milk for themselves. It must be a source of great gratification to Sir Truby King to see that the society which he started 18 years ago had developed to such an extent. The infantile death-rate in the centres this year was very satisfactory, being the lowest on record. The figures for the main centres were: Christchurch 4.9 percent, Auckland 4.6 percent, Wellington 3.8 percent, Dunedin 3.3 percent. Dunedin’s rate this year was one percent lower than it was last year. This was the lowest infantile death-rate in the world. During the year the appeal made for funds for the society set out to raise £10,000 and had collected £8558 2s. £3000 had gone to build up the endowment fund, and a donation of £2000 made possible the purchase of a block of land at Anderson’s Bay. — ODT, 1.8.1925
