PATRIOTIC SPENDING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 132, 23 July 1941, Page 5

PATRIOTIC SPENDING

PROTEST AGAINST ALLEGED MISUSE money for men overseas At Monday's meeting of the Whakatane inter-zone Patriotic Committee the Taneatua and Waimana district committees registered' a protest against the spending of large sums of Patriotic funds on territorials. The protests was discussed and 1 referred to the Zone Executive meeting which was held in the afternoon. It was! considered by, the district committee that the sum of £551 spent during the past 8 months on fruit and cigarettcs for territorials on manoeuvres was too great and should not have been used. The suggestion was that the funds were raised for men overseas and not for those in territorial training, whf were well looked after in a land of plcr.tj-. Speakers added that it was known that men on Vital Points duty did not have many comforts and it appeared that the spending of the funds was not wel'l; judged. Hut at Motutaipu l . A query regarding over £1000 spent on a recreation hut on Mofu-' llsland brought a rep]y from Ihe Mayor of Whakatane that having visited the island he knew Hint tlie trainees there had had no comforts or recreational facilities; whatsoever. Avhik; at the same, "time thev were undergoing an intense course find had very 3'dttle leave. He considered that the expenditure in that case was justified. Uncared' For. Other members referred to the spending on sports' material for overseas camps, stating that while they in no way wished to curtail any pleasure for the men it was felt that the material was not being

cared for and renewailss were being risked for too often. The secretary, Mr C. G. Lucas, explained that the Territorial Association had in the past provided comforts for territorials, but was not. noAv in the position to have the fundsi and, therefore, the Patriotic Council had taken over its work./ Rehabilitation Need. The chairman, Mr J. L. Burnett, stated that it wasf felt that the money collected was for men overseas., The men in territorials were training in a land of plenty, and were on a far different footing from those overseas j r et on the same rate of pay. It had also been pointed out that the purchase of fruit was unnecessary as there was an abundance of apples in the country as revealed by the Government sending the overflow of that commodity to vchooEs and other institutions. Check on Spending-. The chairman continued that in future the unnecessary -spending might be checked as it had been agreed at headquarters that eighty per cent of the funds be earmarked for rehabilitation, which work was the committees most important and which would be very necessary later. With this adopted the furnns would have to be handled with more care when internal spending was considered. "The men will be most In need of help after the war," he said, "there is no thought to deprive the men of any pleasure or necessary comfort, but merely to check lavish spending." When the matter was discussed at the Zone meeting in the afternoon Mr W. Sullivan remarked H-; I ,' it appeared that the funds had used for purposes other for which they were raised anr> •<- was decided that details of the nvpenditure on territorials be obtained.