The Relief of Distress.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20499, 18 March 1932, Page 10

The Relief of Distress.

The aim of to-day's street collection is food, clothing, firing, and shelter for every family in Christchureh in actual distress. It is an appeal first of all to human sympathy, and in the second place to civic pride; and it will be heard and answered. But the answering will not be easy. The amount required is very large, and it is almost impossible that there will be any large contributions. The Committee asks all who can afford larger sums to give ,them, and many will do so; but its x*eal hope is the fact that all the others realise what giving nothing at all would mean. It has arranged that the whole collection will bo paid into the Mayor's Relief of Distress Fund, from which in turn a substantial sum will be transferred to the Citizens' Relief Committee to be distributed under the general supervision of Mr George Harper. There will be no waste, no bills for personal services, no extravagance, and no exploitation of the fund by the morally weak and unworthy. There will not even be overlapping, since the organisations engaged in relief work have now all been coordinated under the pressure of the common need. As nearly as a city-full may be we are to-day all one family, and the law of the family is sacrifice. It is not a case in which it is sufficient t® give what will not be missed. We must give what will be missed, since the need is as great as that already, and bound to be greater.