BOARD OF GUARDIANS
Xmas Presents For Poor Children
Miss Greet said that Miss Henderson and Mrs. Millar were collecting subscriptions of 1s from the Guardians for Christmas presents for the children in the Workhouse. Mrs. Millar would take the subscription.
It was agreed on the suggestion of Miss Greet that the annual additional Christmas relief be given to the outdoor poor.
Christmas and New Year Dinner
The Clerk said they would require to appoint a Committee to look after the question of the Christmas an New Year’s Day dinners
Mr. Bolas moved accordingly.
Capt. Collingwood said he would like to move that they follow the old custom. every inmate received a glass of beer on Christmas Day.
Mr. Summerfield said the custom was to give them a pint.
Mr. Clerk said he was very much against the Guardians providing any inmates with liquor. They should not encourage drink.
Mr. Walker said he would support Mr. Summerfield and give them a pint of beer.
Capt. Collingwood said the Guardians supplied the Christmas dinner and there was a subscription taken for the New Year’s dinner.
Mr. Bell said he wished to know whether it was a free gift or if it came off the rates
Miss Greet- It was provided by the Board at Christmas.
Capt. Collingwood said he wishes to say onward. people in the house got what they wanted in the past. he thought one glass of beer on Christmas Day would do no harm to anybody. he thought a glass of beer just makes all the difference to their Christmas.
Mr. Bradford asked how many in the house would take a pint of beer.
Mr. Banks- 50 all told.
Capt. Davidson said it was hardly fair to take it off the inmates.
A vote was taken and resulted 6 off the rates and 15 against.
Capt. Collingwood said seeing there was no generosity about them he asked if they would accept the offer from him to supply the liquor.
CHRISTMAS CHEER
Dr. Saleeby writes- It would be swell for most of us, dietetically as well as economically, if dried fruits, particularly sultanas, currants and raisins, were to play a larger part in our diet. For this reason I am pleased to see effort is being made to induce British house wives to use Australian fruits this year for their Christmas puddings.
The grape, the fruit of the vine, is an age-long friend of man, if rightly used. It notably retains its virtues when dried; the water is gone, but the precious ingredients-chief among them sugars, a prime source of energy and heat-remain. Sultanas, raisins, and currants are highly to be commended for their rich food value and digestibility, and we are fortunate in being able to obtain large supplies of them from Australia, where our British ideas and sanitary conditions obtain.
The Christmas pudding is a most nutritious innocent, and digestible achievement of the culinary art, and I have never discovered why we can only have it once a year. Those who say it is indigestible forget that, before we reach it, most of us have already eaten too much; the pudding is not to blame. the various dried forms of grape are amongst its most agreeable and beneficial ingredients, ad I only wish all grapes were so wisely used.
SNOW, FROST, THUNDER and LIGHTNING
On Friday morning the inhabitants of Berwick were surprised to see a flash of lightening and to hear a loud peal of thunder.
On Sunday morning and afternoon there were heavy falls of snow and the district was covered in snow. The frost broke, however on Sunday night, and much of the snow had disappeared by Monday morning.
The “blizzards,” the culminating achievements of the month, began in the small hours of Wednesday, when a storm burst out of the North-East and swept the Cheviots. From that morning till Sunday afternoon frost and snow have been alternating, the snow being for the most part, drifted by strong wind. In the country there were scenes that reminded one of old-time Christmas cards.
The roads were badly blocked in the Alnwick district. Vehicles wee stranded in snow drifts and had to be dug out.
Two charabancs left Alnwick for Felton on Saturday night, but had not got very far before they were embedded in a deep bank of snow. Help was secured, and the vehicles were dug out. The shivering occupants had to return to the market town, where they were stranded until the road was forced at midnight. The snow ploughs were kept constantly at work. roads to the surrounding villages were in an even worse state, snow lying hedge high. Motors and horse drawn vehicles were frequently trapped in the snow, and volunteers were kept hard at work digging them out.
