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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE FRESH AIR FUND. Sir,—lt is with a deep and grateful recognition of how much i owe to friends and sympathisers in distant portions of the Kinpire Uiat 1 venture to-day to appeal to your readers once again la help me with thu Fresh Air Fund. Wo, in tlio Old Country, just now are rightly supposed lo have most of our thought's fixed cu the Coronation, and upon all its attendant festivities, but his gracious Majesty the King, with the characteristic tlioughtfulness of his family, and his own ready sympathy for the sick and suffering, lias Ron-D our of his way, in many directions, to remind hi* subjects that we must not on that account, forget the poor in our midst; and a few weeks ago his Majesty beeamo patron of the Fresh Air Fund. 1 think I mentioned in.my last communication to you, how King George, when ho was Prince of W:i!?s, drove one bright spring afternoon from London, accompanied by the Queen, to Eppincr, Forest, to inspect, in person, over a thousand slum children whom we had callccted from some of the most squalid and poverty-stricken districts in the East End of London. It was an example of Royal sympathy and thoroughness thai created a profound impression on the public mind at the time it happened, with the result that the Fresh Air Fund's figures took a tremendous lean upward, and last year a quarter of a "million, poor children,"drawn from the slums in all the big cities of England, Wales. Ireland, and Scotland, were given, at least, one day's chance of breathing pure air nnd of receiving plenty of good food in some of the. prettiest and most health-giving villages in the Motherland. Tho Motherland! Sometimes I admit that we who have taken on our shoulders the care and the rescue of her thousands and thousands of unloved and unwanted little slum miles grieve sorely ovor the Motherhood when w ethink of tho actual extent of the problem in misery and wretchedness to which we have put. our hands. Twenty years ago I remember J started the Fresh Air Fund with a day.'s treat to 20,000 waifs, ac a cost of ninenence a child. This year, 1011, I see that the fund will have to provide for something like 300,000—and many of these, alas! will be so sick, so weak, so helpless that nothing less than a. fortnight's rest at the seaside will give them even a fighting chance, of life. I do, therefore, urge your readers to help me, as quickly and as generously as they can with subscriptions to the Fre«h Air Fund, the address of which is 23 St. Bride Street, London, E.C. A small gitt of uinenenco will give one outcast a whole dny in the country—a railway journey, two meals, games, and friends. J;8 2s. will provide for a special party of 20fl, with the necessary attendants, to which nu donor can give any name he, or she, likes; and I, personally, know no better method of commemorating any unexpected stroke of good fortune or any loss "too deep for tears" than this special treat to poor starring children of the Ol'd Country that have never . known the brightness and the gladness and the open air joys that colonial children enjoy as a natural birthright. I am very anxious that this twentieth anniversary of the Fresh Air Fund shall bo marked by a. record subscription list. The fact that. I am not pleading in any way for myself, but entirely for poor little wretched, half-starved mites who have lived in nothing but vile rookeries and rags, and p. poisoned, foetid atmosphere that has stunted frame and mind, makes .me bold to ask all who can to como f-neeinlly this year to the assistance o? tho Fresh Air Fund. There is something in the dumb uncomplaining misery and wretc.hedne-s ot' these children which I am certain men and women with hearts cannot, rcfiiss to-day to answer; and I personally can assure your readers that in return for any act of charity these waifs will give them all they have to give—loving and grateful remembrance of the unknown friends who first showed (hem the glories of the open air, and first, helped them to look at the blue sky above their heads.—l am, etc., C. ARTHUR PEARSON. 23 St. Bride Street, London, E.C.

SATUFIDAY HALF-HOLIDAY. Sir,—Act I.—Labour party demanding Saturday half-holiday. Act ll.—Labour party demanding abolition of all night trading. Act lll.—Federation of all Trades and Labour Councils throughout Australasia, and general demand for five working days a week. Act IV.—Capital owing to immediate curtailment of earning power and probable future extinction as a practical factor compels Labour to become a burden upon Hie State Act y.—Chaos. Capital, labour, people, and country having no power, become a prey to an invading alien nation, which reaps benefit of nearly a century's harmonious work of ■ capital and labour.— I am, etc., VERBUM SAP. April 2, 1911.

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19110407.2.68

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1096, 7 April 1911, Page 6

Word Count
834

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1096, 7 April 1911, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1096, 7 April 1911, Page 6

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