CORSO pruning its costs

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33873, 19 June 1975, Page 18

CORSO pruning its costs

The man in the street who gave a dollar ' to CORSO could be confident that 80c would 1 be spent on aid, 7c on free education about causes of poverty, and 13c on administration, the new director of CORSO (Mr A. J. Todd) | said in Christchurch yesterday.

As a result of drastic i [pruning of staff and quarters, in the last financial year, expenditure on administra-I tion had fallen from 30 per' cent to 16’per cent of total income, and would fall again) to 13 per cent, Mr Todd said.) One-third of the relief i body’s staff had been laid off. i a reduction from 31 to 21,' and all jobs re-advertised as their definitions changed. The next cut-backs would be made in office space, and services. Where secretarial and copying services had been provided free they would now be charged for. Expected annual savings through cut-backs were estimated six months ago to be about $lOO,OOO, and Mr Todd said that although he did not have final figures, savings were “drastic.” MORE COLLECTED Mr Todd said that in spite! of criticism of CORSO’sj Action for World Development programme, collections: [had not fallen off. Instead’ they had risen $33,000 on ‘ the 1974 total. For the loss of the Medical Association of New Zealand because of its opposition to | ! the A.W.D. programme, l CORSO had gained another four members — the Methodist Church, C.A.R.E.. the! Committee on Vietnam, and: Trade Aid. Mr Todd said that | CORSO’s Action for Develop- i rnent programme had been I misunderstood more than it| had been understood. The: general public had inter-) oreted the move as the cession of control into radical hands, and the beginnings of I oolitical involvement in an organisation that had been I known for its non-political | stand.

isymptoms, which would [spring up again. CHEAP BANANAS I “We want Mrs Jones in [Burwood to know why she igets her bananas so cheaply. )We want her to think about the fairness of protective 'tariffs against the products |Of poor nations, and the size of them,” said the Canterbury regional organiser (Mr R. A. Considine). Although there had been a change in orientation, CORSO was not making money available that would be spent on arms or ammunition by repressed groups, Mr Todd said. If a South African minority group living on a reservation at subsistence level applied for aid, it would be given it if it were tq be used to develop self-sufficiency, but not I if it were to finance an uprising, he said. 1 “We do not support violence, but the question of | what constitutes violence is 'itself a very relevant one.” I CORSO has its national appeal on Saturday. Mr Todd said that no target had been set. but that $350,000 was a I reasonable figure to expect.

It was true that there had been a dramatic change of emphasis in CORSO’s funcdon. Instead of continually feeding and repairing and i clothing, it was seeking to 'educate on reasons for world (poverty, and seeking the reimoval of causes rather than •the constant eradication of