PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 23, 27 July 1942, Page 4

PATRIOTIC FUNDS

MONEY SET ASIDE

SPECIAL WELFARE WORK

"Some people still appear to think that patriotic funds are used in connection with the Government's duty to look after the rehabilitation of exsevicemen," said the Hon. Vincent Ward, M.L.C., honorary secretary of the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council, today. "This, everyone agrees, is a Government affair, and the Government has made it quite clear that it fully recognises this responsibility. "Already Parliament has passed a Rehabilitation Act, which provides machinery to enable the State to play its full part. A National Rehabilitation Council of fifteen members, which functions as an advisory body, and a Rehabilitation Board of five members have been set up and have been given wide powers. Not only has the' Rehabilitation Board power to assist in the repatriation of any person, male or female, who has served in the Navy, Army, Air Force, or Merchant Navy, but it also'has the power to assist the widow and children of a deceased serviceman, and also the wife of a totally incapacitated ex-serviceman. In addition, the Government has made provision for pensions in appropriate cases. "Consequently, it is quite a reasonable question to ask why the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council has, as other provincial patriotic councils have done, set aside a special fund for patriotic rehabilitation, or as we call it 'welfare,' to distinguish patriotic from State aid. Prior to the recent appeal, the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council, put aside £101,575 for this special welfare work. WHAT WAS DONE IN 1914-18. "Last war, which, was 25 years ago, over £330,000 was set aside in the Wellington Province for similar work, and the balance of this money is still being used exclusively for men and dependants of that war. It is administered by the Wellington War Relief Association and kindred bodies throughout the province. That there is still a demand fgj; patriotic welfare assistance for men of the last war demonstrates how necessary it is to have ample funds in hand for the men of this war. "Patriotic welfare committees have been established throughout the ten zones in the Wellington Province, and in Wellington the War Relief Association, with additional members from the Wellington Metropolitan Patriotic Committee, administer patriotic welfare assistance for the metropolitan area. Today we are drawing on this special fund to the extent of about £100 a month, and the amount will obviously increase considerably, because, with the best intentions in the world, the State, it would appear, can no more today than in the past carry out its tremendous rehabilitation work without cases of hardship arising, without unforseen and unavoidable delays occurring, and other difficulties causing unusual cases of distress. The records show all sorts of such cases, which would not occur to anyone without actual experience. We all known in our own lives that, even when we have made proper provision for all circumstances, the unexpected crops up and has to be coped with, and that is what we are endeavouring to guard against for the men of this war and their dependants. "Patriotic funds," Mr. Ward concluded, "are not, nor will they be, used to relieve the State of its responsibilities." ______„__