REGULAR GIVING

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 45, 17 November 1941, Page 5

REGULAR GIVING

Held To Be Best Method Of • Contributing PATRIOTIC FUNDS The way in which small sums of money put aside regularly mount up in a comparatively short time and also tlie value of collective, effort are aptly illustrated from records showing contributions to the patriotic funds. In January, 1940, the principal of a girls secondary school in Wellington, whose request to remain anonymous has been kept to this day, wrote to the National Patriotic Fund Board expressing her desire to give 1/- a day out of her monthly cheque to the patriotic funds and enclosing her first contribution of £l/11/- for the 31 days of the previous December. Since that time she has contributed a total of £35/1/-. . , . The attitude of the school principal when she announced her decision was that regular giving was the best way to help and today her view remains unchanged. She believes that a little all the time is much better than one grand effort and that from the individual’s point of view the money is not missed if given in small sums regularly. When she wrote her letter in January, 1944). she suggested that others might follow her method of giving. Though others have not adopted exactly the same method, there have been individuals and groups of employees who have made regular contributions since then and the results that have been achieved are striking. In March, 1940, employees of the Post and Telegraph Department throughout New Zealand embarked on a plan of regular giving to the provincial and national patriotic funds by voluntarily agreeing to small deductions being made from their salaries, and up to the end of September last thev had contributed £B9Ol. The Public Service Association, early in 1940, also organized a system of regular giving among its members , in other Government departments. The association itself set the ball rolling witli a direct contribution of £5OO in April of that year and in the following month the first contribution from members, amounting to £lOO, was made. The monthly contribution was rapidly built up, till now the average amount given each month,from this source 13 a little more than £6OO. Tlie amounts collected from the voluntary salary deductions are paid in by the various departments to the treasury, which forwards a cheque for the total sum to the National Patriotic Fund Board. Altogether £10.260/12/10 had been raised in this way up to the end of September. If the association s gift is included, tlie total contribution of the Public Service Association and those supporting the appeal, up to the end of September, was £10,760/12/10. Contributions on a collective basis have also been received from employees of the Railways Department, as distinct again from the P. and T. and Public Service Association donations, and trow staffs of private-firms. r lhe splendid assistance and continued support of all. these regular givers are greatly appreciated by tlie National Patriotic ihmd Board. The regular contributions have been a help to the board! in planning its activities.