KING GEORGE V.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1937, Page 10

KING GEORGE V.

MEMORIAL FUND.

CAMPS FOR CHILDREN.

GOVERNMENT PLANS.

SUBSCRIPTION OF £25,000.

Recalling his previous announcement that the Government had decided to establish in Xew Zealand four permanent children's h* *lth camps as a memorial to King George V., the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, announces that the Government has opened the fund for ta;a purpose with a donation of £25,000. He appeals to the people of New Zealand to supplement that amount, preferably by direct giving, between now and June 3, His late Majesty's birthday. Mr. Savage stated that the Government would subsidise £ tor £ all the money subscribed by the people of New Zealand after the fund, inclusive of the Government's £25,000 contribution, reached a total of £50,000.

"The Government sincerely trusts that the fund will reach at least a total of £100,000, the minimum amount necessary for the proper establishment qf two permanent camps in each island," stated Mr. Savage. Such an object would, the Government felt, be more in keeping with the sympathetic concern always felt by His late Majesty for the health and recreation and the welfare generally of his peoples throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations than any other of the numerous projects which had received consideration. The scheme for health camps had the additional merit that, while widely national in its character, its benefits would not be confined to any one spot in New Zealand. The basis of it, as now visualised, would be at least two permanent camps in each island as centres of the whole movement. Progress of Movement. 'It is not my intention, nor do I think there is any need for me in this appeal, to elaborate on the worth or the work of the children's health camps today," remarked Mr. Savage. "From humble beginnings just after the war, the movement has moved ahead with giant strides. Health camp organisations throughout the Dominion have dealt with thousands of children irom both town and country. In some cases extensive periods of camp life throughout th* year, particularly at Otaki (our nearest approach at present to the type of permanent camp we are visualising), in others, weeks of health-restoring sunshine in summer and holiday camps have, at small cost, set firmly, on the road to permanent health: children who otherwise would be in danger of life-long ill health and of becoming a heavy financial burden on our State and local medical and hospital services. I

'The regard in which succeeding Governments and the people of New Zealand have held the movement in the past seven years is evidenced by the official establishment of the annual health stamp campaign and by the increasingly generous response of the people to that campaign. The health camp movement, however, .reached a point last year when its future, depended on the scattered local;effort being nationally organised, As the result of a W last-July, the Hrdvemi'nV = !s *tfc#"lio' organised' that any danger of wasteful dispersed effort, is obviated. -' ''

"The movement did not begin as a Government effort. It began with the people themselves.. It grew through their unaided efforts. It became associated with the State through its importance and -the national value of the work it was doing. Its association with the State, particularly through three great Departments—Health, Post and Telegraph, and Education—has not resulted in the movement becoming just another State service. It is a shining example of national work done in co" operation between the people themselves and important Departments of State, these latter not governing but advising and helping financially and in other directions. The Dominion Advisory Board itself reflects this co-operation, consisting as it does of two delegates from each of the central councils (at present four in number), the Director-General of Health, the Director-General of Post and lelegraphs, and the Director of Education. It i 8 this Dominion board which the Government intends shall administer Mp e m^| D ? » Ge ?* B - n , the Fifth National Memorial Fund.- The moneys will not •i?*v r to the Consolidated Fund, but will be formally vested in trustees ofi whom the Minister of Health will be I

Rational Appeal. MfftLSEnS 11 >*? KiR S George the Fifth is a matter altogether outsfde the ? f P ol "*™- The Government of «Sf\L? u St *""? . cannot clai «i itself that it either originated the Health '£!2L22T k *!? °l be = an G °vernmcr.t assistance to it. Here and now I pav tribute to the work of past Governments in helping the movement along, notablv by inaugurating the annual Health Stamp campaign, and also by freely enlisting the aid of members of the present Government party when they were private members of the Opposition. What the present Government has done has been to recognise the national spirit of its predecessors and to carry on the work they began, It is most fitting, therefore, that my appeal should be on as national a basis as the object of the King George the Fifth, Memorial Fund and the response which I know the people of New Zealand will make. To that end I invited my immediate predecessor in office, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, and the present Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, to associate themselves with me in this In replying to my invitation, Mr. Forbes said:—

1 will be pleased to have my name associated with the appeal that you are making to the people of New Zealand to support the establishment of permanent children's health camps in New Zealand as a national memorial to His. late Majesty Sing George the Fifth; Nothing in my opinion could be more fitting as a memorial, as His late Majesty during his whole lifetime showed the deepest sympathy with those in ill-health, particularly the children.' Mr. Hamilton, too, gladly agreed to support my appeal. I any farther, -in the happy position of being able to announce that I have received' through his Excellency the Governor-General, .intimation that his present Majesty King George the Sixth approves our proposals, and approves them, moreover, as an object for a national-appeal in lieu of any Coronation, memorial. I make my appeal to every individual in New Zealand as well as to every organisation of the people of every kind," Subscriptions will be received and acknowledged by the Auckland "Star."'