DOMAIN IMPROVEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 66, 18 March 1915, Page 7

DOMAIN IMPROVEMENT.

PATRIOTIC CONTRIBUTION SFENT. LEAGUE ASKED FOR ANOTHER ' XI.OOO. MORE WORK AT LOWER RATE FAVOURED. The Auckland Patriotic League executive met yesterday afternoon, the principal matter of business being the conjsideration of a request from the Domain ■ Improvement Committee for a further (contribution of CI.OOO towards relief work on the Domain. The present included Messrs. (J. Elliot, A. S. Bankart, Wesley Spragg, A. J. Lnrner, C. Rhodes. E. A. Craig, N. A. Nathan, and H. W. Hudson. The executive gave £1,000 some months ago to supplement the expenditure of the exhibition fund, in order that day labour might be employed on the Domain improvement works instead of contract labour. That £1.000 is now exhausted, and the Domain Committee ! asked for a further £.1.000. The opinion was expressed by members of the executive that, whilst they sympathise in every wav with the object for which the first £1.000 was subscribed, and whilst they had a strong feeling that the aggregate earnings of the men ehould not be curtailed, but even perhaps increased, the !>/ a day paid at present for that class of work was excessive under the circumstances. The committee, in short, would rather see the men given four days' work a week at 7/. or even S/ a day, than three days at 0/ a day. The meeting, however, resolved to carry on the present arrangement for a week or two lonjrer in order to ascertain meanwhile what can be arranged to makp the public fund go further. It was pointed out that the patriotic fund, though large, was limited, and was subscribed primarily for the purpose of providing support for those suffering from the usual casualties of war—the widows, orphans and cripples of course, having first claim. These claims have not yet begun to come in. and the committee are. therefore, entirely in the dark as to what amounts they may safely allot for local relief, without impairing their ability to meet the objects for which the fund was mainly subscribed. The seretary reported that the rules of the Auckland Relief Association had been approved by the Governor-in-Coun-cil. except one minor alteration, to which the committee had agreed. The grant of £287 towards the formation of a children's playground in the Grey Lynn Park, to provide relief work for men for three days a week, was confirmed. In Teply to a request from the Mayor of Wellington, for a contribution toward; providing amusement for the men at Trentham Camp, it was decided that until the 'Defence Department could see its way to make allotment orders on soldiers' pay date from enlistment instead of embarkation, the money would he better employed in maintaining soldiers' dependents in Auckland. A communication from the Minister of Defence stated that arrangements had been made for soldiers on leave to travel on the railways at half rates. The sum of £57 I<V5 lias been remitted to the executive by the secretary of the Otorohanga Patriotic Fund Committee.