Windsor & Richmond Gazette, Saturday, March 3, 1900 - page 8 MARSDEN PARK The annual meeting of the Presbyterian church committee was held lately, the Rev. C. A. White being in the chair. Mr. Garforth was re-elected choirmaster, Mr. Trautwein was also re-elected hon. treasurer, and Mr. T. A. Jarrett was elected hon. secretary, vice Mr. Bosward, resigned. The following committee was appointed, to act with the above office-bearers viz : - Messrs. Mangold, McPhee, Hodgson, Milne, Sonichson, Davis and Witts. Mr. Outlaw, junr., resigned his position on the committee, Mr. Garforth proposed Mr. Lawson but this gentleman excused himself on the plea that his official duties are not over till 8 p.m.. After the business had been disposed of, an enjoyable musical evening was spent, and the ladies provided refreshments. Miss Daisy Lawson, a popular young lady of this district, has started a "Penny Patriotic Fund," and during the last week she collected 218 pennies, with the promise of more. The young lady's idea is that many, owing to the slack times, cannot spare shillings, but would willingly give what they could afford, and by the above we can recognise that she is right when she says "every penny helps." Lately I met a Mr. Brooks, who, I found during our conversation, lived here in the early days, when there was only a small railway station at Riverstone, and the chief support of it, after the residents, was a sawmill. During the time Mr. Brooks was engaged here he was filling the position of cook, and states that he could have obtained the allotments where the principal business places now stand very cheaply, but owing to the heavy floods he thought the town would be built at Marsden Park, and he purchased land here. He was astonished when he paid his visit at the progress Riverstone had made, and predicts that it in a few years' time will be a second Parramatta. We have experienced terrible weather lately, the one cry being "no rain yet." A few local gentlemen had a discussion, and the following scientific views were placed before us. One gentleman stated that when rain is threatening it will disperse in the vicinity of Prospect ; he contends that water draws water, hence it is that it rains at Prospect and in the neighbourhood of the Parramatta River simply because there are two enormous sheets of water, and we have none. Another believes we are situated on the lea side of the mountain, and when reading an exploring work regarding America he found that the lea side was always barren through an insufficient rainfall.