MONTHLY GRANT APPROVED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1941, Page 11

MONTHLY GRANT APPROVED

A grant of £10 a month to provide comforts for guards in outpost camps in the Wellington district was approved by the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council at its meeting today. The Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) presided.

Mi. E. C. Hale explained that the R.S.A. had been making a grant of £10 a month to Captain Vance, so that the comfort of the men at the outpost camps might be cared for. Tfyese men, of whom there were 400 in the Wellington Province, did not have the ordinary camp facilities, and Mr. Hale considered that the council should make that £10 grant to Captain Vance each month so that comforts could be supplied to these men. The R.S.A. was more than satisfied with the work done by Captain Vance, who made it a practice of going round the outposts once a week.

The Mayor said he wished to correct any misapprehension that might have arisen over a published report of a discussion by the Wellington Metropolitan Patriotic Committee. He said that the report could be interpreted to mean that the meeting of the Metropolitan Committee had agreed to pay £100 to Captain Vance for doing various work at the outposts camps in the way of improving the camps themselves. That was not the resolution passed by the metropolitan-1 body. , What happened was that the application came forward, but when it was discussed the committee at once took the view that it should not be called upon to make any expenditure on camp structures. That was definitely something that should be paid for out of the War Expenses Account, and it was left to him to take the question up with the •'Minister concerned. Mr. Nash read the report and took the line,, that it was improper for such a payment to be made. "I gather it will be met by the War Expenses Account," added Mr. Hislop.

An application from the Salvation Army for £ 100 to furnish and equip its hut at the railway station was approved. It was stated that the hut was used by the troops for storing their luggage, and that it served an extremely useful purpose.

The difficulty of providing suitable accommodation in Taihape for the men from the Waiouru camp was referred to the committee in charge of the local zone. Apart from two hotels, it was stated, there ware no suitable quarters for the men when they came into town. The V.M.C.A. and the Catholic Club had offered to conduct quarters if they were supplied.

One member expressed the view that the men would still go to the hotels, and that the only way out of the difficulty would be to provide a wet canteen at the camp.

The secretary (Mr. Vincent Ward) pointed out that as it was a Territorial camp a wet canteen would not be allowed.