HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1927, Page 16

HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

OTAGO PATRIOTIC FUNDS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDBJ, this day. At a meeting of the Otago Patriotic Association the chairman, Mr. J. j. Clark, said: ''We have had 197- applications during the past quarter, and that is ample evidence of the necessity of tlip association carrying on its work. A large number of applications for assistance are due to unemployment. A remarkable thin? about those* applisations is that an overwhelming proportion come from our men located in the .North Island. Locally there was nothing abnormal." Mr Clark said the position showed two things. One was that soldiers here had made absolutely good as far as their employment was concerned, and the other that good consideration was being shown to these men by their employers. Many of tlie men, owino- to war. disabilities, were not up to 'the maximum of efficiency, and there was a tendency when times were quiet for some of the men not to be retained, but he was very glad to say that such did not obtain in Dunedin. The committee had had some very distressing cases to deal with, but there wa.s a strong determination on the part of soldiers here to work and not to apply for assistance unless they could not po*ssibly do without it. At Christmas time" the committee had been able to expend £100 in brightening the lives of men. women, and children who were suffering as the result of the war. This was made possible through a legacy in a will for the assistance of soldiers and" their" dependents. r