CONCERT TO HEROINE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5061, 6 December 1926, Page 1

CONCERT TO HEROINE

POOR RESPONSE BY PUBLIC. DISGRACE TO NEW SOUTH WALES. There were no more than 100 people at a concert at the Town Hall, Sydney, to Miss Florrie Hodges, the Victorian girl heroine of the Gippsland (Victoria) bush fires last year. Miss Hodges riskqd her life in saving her three little sisters. After carrying them to a creek and keeping their bodies under water until it became too hot, she removqd them to a clearing and laid across them to protect them from the flames. She was terribly bur.ned, but her sisters escaped unharmed.

It was expected that a big crowd would attend the - concert, and Dr. Maloney, M.P., who had been mainly responsible 'for raising ovei- £lOOO for the girl, was disappointed at the boor attendance, but said that the committee which had worked for Miss Hodges found consolation in the fact th,at 50,0'00 school children had responded to the appeal. May Matthews, who presided, said that no words could adequately express the wonderful deed. It was the same spirit which inspired the Anzacs.

Miss Preston Stanley, M.L.AL, said that somebody had told her as she wag walking on to the platform that the gathering was a disgrace to New South Wales. No truer words had ever been uttered. Therq should have been a vast assembly to honour a child heroine who was second to none.

“This gathering does, not show what New South Wales, really feels concerning Florrie Hodges’ great deed,” she continued, “and we should pledge ourselves to arrange another gathering for this brave girl, and pay a splendid tibrute to a splendid heroine.”

Those engaged in the control of education deserved bitter comment for their lack of response said Miss Stanly. The annals df Britissl .history contained, perhaps, no case to equal the bravery o'f Florrie Hodges, and she believed .that New South Wa,lqs would pay a greater honour to the girl. Miss Matthews and «he would call a meeting, and secure the co-operation of the women of the State in arranging a meeting that would show Miss Hodges that the people of New South Wales appreciat- j ed her heroic deed.