100 YEARS AGO
Flood protection needed
RAINS such as we have had during the past few days spell little more than a certain inconvenience and discomfort to the resident of the city. To the farmer in certain localities, on the other hand, they are too often a cause of grave anxiety. This applies particularly to the case of the farmer on the Taieri Plain. Flooding at the Taieri seems to have become the inevitable outcome of any considerable rainfall or aggregation of circumstances causing the rivers to rise. The community will not be surprised, therefore, to learn that the Taieri is again in flood. Experience has versed us in the unfortunate vulnerability of that district. But sympathy with the settlers affected, now confronted for the third or fourth time within the past two years by conditions threatening them with grievous loss, must be supplemented by a strong feeling that some relief must be afforded from a situation that is no longer tolerable.
Children’s home busy
The usefulness of the Children’s Rest Home which was opened at Belmont, Musselburgh Rise, four months ago, is illustrated by the fact that 54 children have already been inmates of it and 16 children are now temporarily residing in it. Children for whose benefit the Rest Home has been provided are those whose mothers have been ordered into a hospital for an operation or who is admitted into a maternity home or for whom treatment has been prescribed in her own home conditional on the
children being removed, or who has been ordered rest away from her home. Other children who may be received into the Rest Home are those whose mother has died and left them requiring immediate attention other than the father can give, or whose parents have died and so left them needing temporary care till they can be provided for. The objects of the home are farreaching, and the conditions of admission are not impeded by any religious or other consideration, nor are the members of the staff subject to any religious test.
Move for church union
The last of a series of meetings of laymen that have been held to discuss the question of church union took place in the Y.M.C.A. Assembly Hall last night, and there was an attendance of some 40 or 50 men. Mr A. Burn presided. The proposal under consideration is for the union of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches, and this has
already been advocated at three representative meetings in different parts of the town. The Chairman outlined the steps that had already been taken, and explained that the proposal for these meetings had originated with the St. Andrew’s branch of the Presbyterian Men’s League. At this meeting the intention was that there should be full and frank discussion of the question from all sides and only two arranged speeches. Mr Peter Barr moved: ‘‘That this meeting of laymen of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational Churches of Dunedin is of opinion that the three denominations should now be united in one church, and undertakes to welcome and support any movement by the governing authorities, whether Assembly, Conference, or Union, towards arriving at a basis of doctrine and policy which will be acceptable to each of the parties concerned, and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the controlling bodies of each of the churches.’’ — ODT, 19.8.1919.