Among these are bottles, the collection of which, of all sizes and shapes, has been undertaken both at Home and elsewhere, in a manner that serves a double purpose - the provision of the means for manufacturers to continue sending out their wares, and conjointly the raising of money for patriotic purposes. Dunedin has come to light in the matter, the school children having been busy collecting from their homes and wherever bottles can be gathered up. The work commenced at the beginning of the month, and the result to date is astonishing. A central depot has been established in Sidey's Buildings, Crawford street, but so fast are the bottles coming into the schools that it is impossible for Messrs Thomson and Co. and Speight and Co. who have undertaken the carting to keep pace with the work. Already some 30,000 are in the depot, though only the schools in and about Dunedin have yet been brought within the scheme. At Ravensbourne yesterday there were something like 5000 bottles waiting to be taken away. Port Chalmers has also commenced collecting, and the bottles from there will be sent to Dunedin by rail. Any firm that can spare the time will be gladly welcomed in the work of carting. The ferry boats have already delivered free of freight considerable quantities from the harbour settlements. The children have risen to the occasion splendidly, the fact that all the proceeds are to be devoted to the Belgian Fund no doubt contributing largely to their energy and enthusiasm. The bottles are being carefully sorted out, counted, and packed at the depot, ready for sale by auction, which, it is expected, will be highly satisfactory. No expense is being incurred to detract from the proceeds of the sale, not even the advertisement of the auction. A feature of the collection is the astonishing number and variety of the medicine bottles, with regard to which the Pharmaceutical Association might well take action with beneficial results, as the better the assorting, the more valuable will the various lots become.
``What are the girls at present taking the place of men who are away going to do in the immediate future?'' was the question propounded by Mr G. M. Thomson at last night's meeting of the Y.W.C.A. Fifty thousand men, he said, were coming back, and it was the duty of the community to the men who had risked their lives to give them the first opportunity of getting into employment again. This remark elicited applause from the meeting. Proceeding, Mr Thomson said he was in the Union Steam Ship Company's office in Wellington a month ago. He saw a number of ladies attending to the public, and to the young lady who gave him his ticket he said: ``What are you young ladies going to do when the boys come back from the war?'' ``Oh, we're going to marry them,'' replied the lady, who added, ``we wouldn't marry the blighters who won't go.'' At any rate, said Mr Thomson, the problem was a serious one, and he threw it out because it was a matter that the association, among others, would have to face. At a later stage of the meeting Mrs Park expressed the hope that the girls now earning good wages would not waste them on frivolities and vanities. Miss Callendar counselled thrift. - ODT, 16.8.1916.
- Copies of picture available from ODT front office lower Stuart St, or www.otagoimages.co.nz
