The object of the scheme is to provide for the transference to the overseas dominions and comfortable settlement therein of British widows (with their families) whose circumstances are likely to be improved by migration, and also to facilitate the migrations of other women desiring to go to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa when the war is over, and the abnormal demand for female labour is exhausted. To promote this work, General Booth, who intimates that as the result of a preliminary appeal £60,000 has already been subscribed, is asking that a fund of £200,000 should be raised. He also announces that the Public Trustee has agreed to act as treasurer of the fund. It is estimated that the sum asked for would secure the settlement of 5000 widows and 10,000 children, and that the work, which would be gradual in operation through the careful means of selection employed at Home, and the no less careful preparation necessary in the dominions for the proper settlement of the families,would be conducted over a period of about five years. Special emphasis is laid on the fact that the scheme is not experimental, but really the outcome and development, accelerated through the war, of very successful widows’ migration work commenced a considerable number of years ago.
• A sitting of the Juvenile Court was held at Milton yesterday, when a boy was charged with stealing a bicycle. After evidence was heard, his Worship (Mr Acheson, S. M.) was satisfied that the boy had stolen the bicycle, and that there was more than the ordinary juvenile element about the case. The boy seemed to have exhibited a criminal tendency, which must be checked at once. He was very loath to inflict a severe sentence, but he thought that, in the interests of the parents, who were very respectable, and of the boy, a salutary sentence should be inflicted. The boy was ordered to receive six strokes of the birch.
• A somewhat unpleasant experience was met with by a party of Browns sportsmen who motored to the mouth of the Waimatuku the other day in quest of flounders. While the party were motoring along the beach the car ran into some quicksand, in which it became firmly embedded, and all efforts to haul it back to terra firma proved of no avail. The party had perforce to temporarily abandon the car and walk to Invercargill, where another car was secured, in which the party motored home. The car was subsequently rescued from its perilous position.
• A strong hefty fellow up Taranaki way who was drawn in the ballot last week burst out crying on receiving the news. But it is quite possible that notwithstanding this apparent weakness he may turn out a first-class soldier. Military history teems with incidents of men who thought themselves cowards but fought like heroes when the proper moment arrived.
• By the will of a North Countryman, just proved, the testator leaves to his wife the sum of one shilling. This bequest, though small, is, perhaps, generous as compared with that of a testator who some time ago directed that the sum of one farthing should be sent to his wife in an unstamped envelope. — ODT, 23.1.1917.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
