ACCEPTANCE OF RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 149, 28 June 1929, Page 10

ACCEPTANCE OF RELIEF

AN APPEAL TO REFUGEES

(By Telegraph.—Press A S sociation.)

._ ■ .■■.-.' NELSON, 27th June. The question of the acceptance of relief, by the earthquake sufferers is already coming to the fore, but it may bo taken for granted that the right thing will be done. [ Mr. Hugh Fraser, Murchison County ?f, ' Z Tltes in the "Mail" as follows, «a Murchisoll refugees in Nelson-— ;■ Now that there are so many of us in Nelson—over 600 all told—it seems to me that we should begin to take stock of ourselves ami our attitude In regard to the question of relief. Probably because of the really terrifying experiences we have gone through we' have to some extent lost our proper sense ot proportion, but we should lose no time m recovering our balance, particularly with regard to the acceptance of money or other assistance. Funds for the relief of distress have been most generously subscribed, but that is no reason why some of us who have not been reduced to a condition of distress should too readily avail ourselves of the opportunity of accepting assistance, whether it be in money or kind. No doubt it is because we have not properly understood, the position that there

have been abuses. Wo do not realise the fact that only those who have no ready money of their own should line up at the Town Clerk's office and accept relief money, and only those who are unable to buy their own should go to the V.M.C.A. rooms for clothes. It is admitted that there are many of us who unfortunately have been hit so hard by the earthquake as to be entitled to accept both money and clothes, and it cannot be denied that there are a few who have accepted clothes or money—particularly money—who should not have done so. The anomaly of it is that some of us who have accepted money are infinitely better off than some of those warm-hearted people who in their sympathy for us have "given when they could ill afford to do so. Let us therefore, all try to get a correct view of the whole business, so that by our actions and our attitude we may preserve our own self-respect and confidence, not only of the people of Nelson but of the Dominion as a whole whence the relief funds are being received."