Canterbury P.R. office consuming reserves

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32902, 28 April 1972, Page 10

Canterbury P.R. office consuming reserves

The Canterbury Progress League had only enough funds for another five months activities, Mr A. A. Mackintosh reported at a meeting of the league.

The league secretary (Mr A. MacKenzie) said he had learned at a Community Public Relations Officers’ Conference in Wellington last month that of the main centres represented at the conference, only the Canterbury Public Relations Office lacked financial stability.

Mr MacKenzie said that while the Canterbury office received less than $lO,OOO a year in contributions from local bodies, the Wellington

City Council spent $28,000 a year running an office of the same size and the Auckland office received $22,000 a year. The Canterbury office, he said, was having to use the reserves accumulated over the last few years to meet ordinary running expenses. Mr Mackintosh—who said after the meeting that the league and the public relations office were financed on a single set of accounts—commented that anyone visiting the office would be amazed how many inquiries it handled.

Mr MacKenzie said that many local bodies had not increased the size of their contributions since 1962. The office had brought a good deal of money into Canterbury but was itself amost at its wits’ end to make ends meet. He described the local body grants as a “somewhat derisory figure.” Another speaker commented that although the local authorities had agreed to increase their contributions by 50 per cent, many had not yet done so.