BIDDING FOR CHARITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 902, 23 August 1910, Page 4

BIDDING FOR CHARITY.

A DISAPPOINTING-AUCTION. 'Now then, ladies and gentlemen, how much for it?" began' Air. H. W. Shortt yesterday afjternoon as he tapped his hammer encouragingly and beamed upon the fifty odd members of the local public who had responded to the invitation of Shortt's, Ltd., to come and bid' for the good of tho Children's Hospital. But the.fifty, odd were not very responsive, ' The lots were all donated by sympathisers, the auctioneer waved his hammer / free, gratis and for nothing, and had pro-. rnised to send every penny to the fund. Under such auspices it was confidently expected that at least <£50 would be raised for tho children's sake. The net result was £7 12s. 3d. "The bottom has fallen out of the campaign by this time," remarked someone afterwards to a representative of The Dominion. The man with the hammer did his best, "Valuable painting, by Collins, worth fifteen guineas at the lowest—how much for it?" It went for thirty shillings. Then there, was a 113-year-old penny, a heavy .copper it was, too. It fetched Is. 6d, Someone previously had offered to buy it privately for 10s.! Another man, who had donated an exquisitely polished, sheet of kauri gum, shaved to the thickness of paper almost, bought it in at 2s. 6d. himself. -A woolly lamb, ripe for the butcher and-Sunday's dinner, gazed solemnly at the crowds He brought 7s. Tea went for 10} d. per lb. A portrait of the. late Hon. John Ballance, in oils, was assessed", at 3s. Gd. The lots were varied. Some were quaint curios worth far more than was bid for them,'but away they went under the inexorable hammer—slaughtered!