"BUY A POPPY?"

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 95, 23 April 1926, Page 8

"BUY A POPPY?"

THE ANNUAL APPEAL jl ■ ! SYMBOLS OF SACRIFICE SOLD. •, GENEROUS RESPONSE BY THE PUBLIC. Scarlet poppies were sold by the thousands on the streets of Auckland to-day. So universal is the appeal made by the annual Poppy Day collection that , the ladies who devote their energies to the work of distributing the emblems and collecting the shillings find that there are few indeed who pass by heedless of the proffered poppy. The person ■ who refuses to give a donation to the fund is the exception, rather than the rule, and collectors in Queen Street to-day found that their chief difficulty was in discovering people who might, be approached ,by reason of the fact that they did not, display a poppy. . i ' The street collection to-day was again J under the direction of Lady Gunson, who undertook the work of organisation at j the special request of the executive of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association. • There was no paucity of helpers, j Several local societies volunteered for j service, as in previous years. The various | selling depots at different points in j Queen Street, at Grafton Bridge, and in the suburbs, were in charge of ladies« representing . the Ex-service Women's Guild, the Victoria League, St. John Ambulance Association, Lyceum Club, Plunket; Society, Women's Christian Temperance Union, Benevolent Society, Rotary Club, Navy League, and Query j Club.L Lady Gunson had charge of the | stall run .'by the last-mentioned * club, j outside Milne and Choyce's building in j Queen Street: I Some suburban shoppers were kept out of town by reason of the rain, which started to fall in the city at 11 o'clock, j Queen Street during the afternoon was not as busy as, it usually is on a Friday. . As a consequence/ the amount collected; in the will probably show a. falling j off, as compared with previous years, but it is confidently anticipated that Auck-1 land will again attain the £1000-mark. In 1924, when badges were .used.instead j of poppies, the sum subscribed in Auok- | land on Poppy Day was £1056. .That. figure was* considered satisfactory, zin ■; view of the disorganisation occasioned by the .railway strike. Last year, the collection in the city rose to £1260, while: the sum of. £300 was subscribed in the suburbs of Mount Eden, Onehunga, Devonport, Takapuna, and Birkenhead. It should be remembered by those in * charge of memorial services in c'iiurches and elsewhere, that the Returned, Soldiers' Association has,, in past years,, strongly deprecated the •'practice' of hand- j ing round collection plates alnong bereaved Tel'atives on Anzac Day with ay view to augmenting the Poppy Day fuiid. j

Fifty per cent of the total sum ; Subscribed by the public to-day will be devoted to the funds of the-' Veterans' Home, Mt. Roskill, 30. per cent to* the Disabled Soldiers' Employment" Committee fund, and 20 per cent to the relief of necessitous cases arising; among fit men. r . Some 80,000 poppies were available for distribution in Auckland to-day. In the <jvent of a complete clearance the record figure; of £4000 would be attained: