SOUTH OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 18

SOUTH OTAGO

BALCLUTHA Air Force Queen The visit of Miss Mary Pratt (the Air Force Queen) and her retinue to Balclutha yesterday culminated in a concert and community sing in the Britannia Theatre at night. The building was packed, and the total takings amounted to £l3O. which included some "tenners" and a few "fivers" when a memento Air Force pennant was auctioned by Mr Twaddle. Mr A. C. Cameron, in a speech explaining what the Queen Carnival movement aimed at, stated that they could depend the money would be used oiuy for the rehabilitation of soldiers returned from the war. In the war of 1914-18 the amount raised by queen carnivals and other patriotic efforts in Otago had amounted to the handsome sum of £312,000, and the money had been used for the amelioration of the condition of returned soldiers to such an extent that there now remained but £30,000 of the original fund, and this, too, was being tactfully administered. Before departing, Miss Pratt presented the bouquet she had received from the Patriotic Committee to Mrs Stevenson (Mayoress), with a request that it be handed on to Miss Rebecca Grant, who had been that day removed to hospital. Miss Grant, she said, had been a great worker in the patriotic movement in the last war, and also, so far as the state of her health would allow. in the present war. A community sing followed, conducted by the local leaders (Messrs Dreaver and Baragwanath), with Mr George Laing at the piano and also as auctioneer.