STREET DAY PERMIT DECLINED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

STREET DAY PERMIT DECLINED

Use of Word “Blackmail” ROYAL LIFE-SAVING SOCIETY PROTEST Dominion Special Service. Auckland, July 23. As a protest against remarks passed by members of the Mount Eden Borough Council when granting permission to the Royal Life-Saving Society and the St. John Ambulance Association to hold street collections in'the borough, the Royal Life-Saving Society has advised the council that it does not intend to avail itself of the opportunity. In its letter the society objects to the word "blackmail” which was used when the applications were before the council on June 24. When Cr. C. H. Cowan was speaking, the Mayor, Mr. T. McNab, was reported as having described street collections as “a sort of blackmail.” Mr. Cowan said: “It is blackmail all right. The causes are generally most deserving. but there should be some other way of financing them.” In its letter the society draws the attention of the council to the work being done by its members. All were honorary workers, and their services were at the disposal of the public at any reasonable time without charge. “We strongly object to the various names applied by certain members of the Mount Eden Borough Council,” states the letter. “We are not blackmailers. All we ask the public to do is to help us with a small donation toward the carrying out of our work.”