APPEAL TO THE SOCIETY
(To the Editor.)
Sir, —May I be permitted space in your columns to comment upon the attitude of the Shipwreck Relief Society regarding the loss of the R.M.S. Tahiti, the crew of which are at present undergoing trials commensurate with what they endured when their vessel sank? Being, in part, destitute, and now. without employment, they, as a body, applied to the Shipwreck Relief Society for relief. The request was ignored, even to the point of failure on the society's part to acknowledge their letter.
A belated reply has now brought forward the assumed fact that "no relief can be given to crews or passengers wrecked outside New Zealand waters." That, in effect, clears the society from any liability in the matter. Between New Zealand and Rarotonga may or may not be "in New Zealand waters"; it is, to my mind, a debatable point. My contention ib if the society is bound by its rule to refrain from offering, relief on the above account, may I be permitted to inquire why the Shipwreck Relief Society so persistently gather in the collections so generously made to them by ships in foreign waters?
The case in point, Sir, is that the exR.M.S. Tahiti was on her seventy-first voyage from New Zealand to San Francisco, and during my working period on her (two years) the following notice appeared every Sunday morning:—"Divine service will be held in the first-class music room at 11 a.m. (weather permitting). AH classes are invited to attend. A collection will be taken in aid of the Shipwreck Relief Society." Those collections, Sir, are regularly remitted to the society, and extending over a period of 70 voyages, about six Sundays per voyage, that would amount to a considerable sum. It may be noted, Sir, that nearly all of those services and collections do not take place in New Zealand waters —a point the society obviously overlooks. Other instances may be quoted of "collection raising" for the society, apropos of sports meetings, and through the many varied channels of life on New Zealand for-eign-going ships. _
Whilst not wishing to dictate to the Shipwreck Eelief Society on the conduct of its business, one can only assume that such excuses for worthy objects are to be deplored.—l am, etc.,
A. MYERS, Printer, ex-R.M.S. Tahiti,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19300918.2.70.3
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 69, 18 September 1930, Page 10
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385APPEAL TO THE SOCIETY Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 69, 18 September 1930, Page 10
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