A £3000 DONATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 10

A £3000 DONATION

GEORGE V MEMORIAL

HARBOUR, BOARD SUPPORT

By unanimous vote the Wellington Harbour Board last evening supported a recommendation of the wharves and accounts committee that in response to the appeal by the Prime Minister the board should contribute £3000 to the King George V Memorial Fund for the establishment of a permanent children's health camp -in the Dominion.

The chairman (Mr. D. J. McGowan) said that the view of the committee was that the Prime Minister and the Government could not have thought of a more fitting/effective, and useful memorial to the late King George V than the establishment of health camps for the young people of New Zealand. The board, he felt, was fully justified in making a contribution of £3000, which might be regarded as a premium on the insurance of the young life of New Zealand.

The Hon. M. Fagan, M.L.C., said that he was very pleased to support the motion, for he agreed that the Government could not have chosen a more happy means of perpetuating the memory of the late King George V. Mr. Fagan remarked that without exception Australian States had been warmly complimentary in their references to the form of memorial decided upon by the New Zealand Government. The health camps were altogether preferable to.an expensive memorial, and while well commemorating the late King would serve also to bring happiness to thousands in New Zealand. The board's action was a splendid gesture and should be an inspiration to other local bodies and organisations throughout the Dominion.

Mr. T. R. Barrer also supported the motion and referred to the necessity of safeguarding the young people of New Zealand, particularly at a period when some alarm was being expressed over the low birth-rate in the Dominion.

A donation of five guineas towards the King George V Memorial Fund was made by the New Zealand Women's Hockey Asosciation at the annual meeting last evening.

The Wellington Centre of the New Zealand Red Cross Society at its annual meeting yesterday voted £10 for the King George V Memorial Fund, and it was agreed that the fullest cooperation would be given to all efforts to raise money for the fund.