CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

A NATIONAL FUND TO THI EDITOR. Sir, — The interview your representative had with Mr, C. J. Parr, of Auckland, gives one much food for thought. The very arguments Mr. Parr uses and the questions he raises in regard to one district being penalised as against another because it has not subscribed so liberally prove the necessity for the establishment of a national fund. It seems a pity that even a gentleman of Mr. Parr's wide experience should express opinions which are so tinged with provincialism. One would have thought that the great object at which this fund aims would cause such feelings to become subservient to the cause at. stake. To prevent any such penalty as Mr. Parr mentions, or any overlapping and duplications as occurred with the Boer War funds, surely some feasible scheme could be evolved for the appointment of advisory trustees in one centre. Such advisory board of trustees would be the body in which the whole of the funds were ' vested, and the Governor of the Dominion for the time being could be chairman. There need be no feelings of jealousy in regard to Wellington being selected as the centre where this advisory board would be established. It is simply selected because of its central position and easy means of communication from all points of the Dominion. In each centre, cay, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, there would be appointed a further board of trustees, who would attend to the handling of the moneys and to applications for relief. The moneys to be handled by these separate sets of trustees would be allocated from time to time by the advisory board at Wellington. Surely by calling a wieldy conference of experienced gentlemen throughout New Zealand, and having present at that conference advisory counsels, some scheme somewhat on the above basis could be happily evolved out of what is tending to oe a controversy. I would add that it might be advisable for .the conference to invoke the aid and experience of some of the gentlemen who handled the Boer War funds, and I would particularly mention the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken and Mr. A. H. Miles. ■ It appears to me that this matter is of very great importance, and one in which even the Prime Minister might, when' he has the time, take a hand and call together the necessary conference. It might be further suggested that such conference should not he, held until the various district funds have been collected, so that the total amount of these important funds for the whole of the Dominion can be approximately calculated.—l am, etc., SUNSET. .Wellington, 24th June.