WAR RELIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 4

WAR RELIEF.

FUND WOUND UP. PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION. COSTS OF ADMINISTRATION. A decision to wind up the Provincial Siek and Wounded Soldiers' Fund was made when the Auckland Provincial and Patriotic War Relief Association unanimously adopted its executive com? mittee"s annual report to-day. The fund has spent in it« 25 years' existence, £538,935) 0/11, while other ex|M?nditures brought the total figure up to £610.319 0/7. Administrative costs amounted to 7.56 per cent, with the result that the association's balance of £17,500 16/1 at March 31, 1941), was les ß 'than 11.5 per cent of the interest earned during the past 24 year*. The executive fciade its report as a result of an inquiry made during the ]>ast year by a special joint committee, comprising the Finance Committee and the Claims Board. All undertakings and obliga'tions had i>een honoured. The report pointed out that the association had established 21 branches throughout this province of which 10 had closed. It stated that there were 25,830 flies in the office, representing assistance for one in four of all men who served overseas in 1914-18, not to mention assistance for dependents of N.Z.E.F. men. Government Great War pensions had of late years lessened the need for the association's aid. •Adoption of the executive's report means that the A fund will cease on September 30, 1940; that the associations offices will be closed on the same date; that the services of the staff will be dispensed with; that half the outstanding A fund moneys on that date be transferred to the National War Funds Council; and that the other half be transferred to the Veterans' Home fund. The association will by no means cease its total activities." It will continue administration' of the Veterans' Home in Auckland. Sir James Gunson was in the chair. He thanked the Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, patron of the association, for his interest and attendance. In reply Sir Ernest said it would be a great loss to the community to see the association's work lessened. He mentioned possible co-operation with the Auckland Provincial Patriotic Council, of which he was chairman. Sir James Kmison reiterated that it was only one fur ft of the association which was being discontinued and the motion of adoption was carried. Seven retiring members of the executive were re-elected, as follows: Sir Henry Horton, Messrs. G. H. Fleming, J. Marsden Caughey, E. W. Inder, C. J. Tunks, C. R. Munro, S. C. Reid.