GIFTS DEPOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 30, 3 August 1940, Page 13

GIFTS DEPOT

COMFORTS FOR TROOPS

RECEIVING AND SENDING

A LARGE-SCALE JOB

If a patriotic organisation is to be really effective not only must it continue to have the good will and support of the community, but the organisation itself must see to it that continuity of supplies of comforts for the fighting services is maintained. This does not allow for any slackening of effort, as the amount of work and responsibility involved and the .volume of comforts required are growing all the time. Throughout the country, ever since the departure of the Second Echelon, preparations have been in hand : for the ■ building ; ,up of further large stocks of goods, which from time to time pass through the National Patriotic Fund Board's gifts depot in Wellington, the clearing centre for the Dominion.

The provision of gift parcels and,the packing and . dispatch of them has been a. big job, on its own, for New Zealand now has two'echelons overseas and the. idea is to collect sufficient parcels of comforts to enable one to be given to each man. This is what is officially known as the National Patriotic Fund Board's "unaddressed gift parcels scheme." It was designed to ensure that every member of the N.Z.E.F. overseas receives something from this country from time to time. Unfortunately, the first, consignment of gift parcels from this country did not reach the First Echelon in Egypt, owing to the destination of the ships in which they were.carried being changed after departure from New Zealand. The Second Echelon got those parcels but since then it has been possible for tfte National ■• Patriotic Fund Board to: send a fresh supply of .parcels for the First Echelon. HUNDREDS OF CASES. Altogether, since the Second Echelon left the Dominion,. 1494 cases of comforts have been cleared from the board's gifts store in Wellington. This total comprised 1359 cases of gift parcels, each case containing about 10 parcels, 16 cases of malt, 13 cases of woollen goods, and 106 cases of fruit cake. Besides this the store has ( also dealt with further supplies. Some of the gift parcels received from outside centres have been packed in cases that have been too large. They must be in boxes the size'of kerosene cases. Because some districts have sent their parcels to Wellington in-: large cases involving the unpacking and. repacking of the contents this has added to the amount of work that has'had to be done.. Expert packers from various firms help to-lighten the work in this connection. They give their services voluntarily. Recently at night six packers from one Wellington firm boxed and wired over 900 parcels in an hour and a quarter. They got them into 92 cases. In addition to its big store, the board has storage space in the old Wellington Central Library Building, and there the final touches are put to the packing of all the woollen goods, such as balaclavas, scarves, and mittens. . To protect these articles from attack by insect pests they are put into tinlined cases. .■.;■■■•;■ Providing for large numbers of men in the way the National Patriotic Fund Board and the provincial patriotic councils are doing is certainly a bigscale job. Without the assistance that has been given so readily throughout the country, notably by the women, it would be a much greater task. The National Patriotic Fund Board is grateful for that help, and-knows that in its efforts to do the best for the men of the services it can count on a continuance of support.