PENGUIN RELIEF FUND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 457, 16 March 1909, Page 6

PENGUIN RELIEF FUND.

Certain, correspondence having passed between tho Primo Minister (Sir ,T. G. Ward) and Mr. John Duncan, M.P.. for Wairau, concerning tho necessitous condition in which Mrs. Hannam, tho only woman survivor of the Penguin disaster, is reported to bo, the question has been raised as to tho administration of tho fund. Tho fund is vested m an administrative committee, of which Mr. J. R. Palmer, town clerk, is sccrotarj' and convener; and is to bo susidised by tho Government on a basis of £ for £ up to £1000. A representative of Tue Dominion interviewed Mr. Palmer, secretary of tho committee, and asked whether tho fund was being administered as occasion required, or simply vested as a credit for futuro disbursement. " Tho committee has already disbursed over £250 to meet tho necessities of certain cases," ropliod Mr. Palmer. "Th 6 committeo has no fixed dates of meetings, but is convened regularly, as occasion demands. A number of the cases which had a claim upon tho fund have been disposed of altogether. In Mrs. Hannam's caso, between £70 and £80 have been paid up to tho present. The total amount of tho fund now stands at, roughly, £1200."