The Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1940. CARNIVAL CLIMAX.

Evening Star, Issue 23723, 2 November 1940, Page 10

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1940. CARNIVAL CLIMAX.

Thebe can be no doubt about the worthiness of the cause for which the Queen Carnival Committee has been battling so energetically for weeks. The task of caring for fighting men who have returned from active service should be one of the first duties not only of the Government, which must work out a pensions scheme to a satisfactory conclusion, but also of all citizens in a position to give their attention to the more local aspects of the work of sympathetic and practical rehabilitation. When the present campaign to raise funds for this purpose was mooted the idea temporarily gained ground, probably on account of the intensely grim nature of the air fighting over Great Britain, that the inauguration of a Spitfire fund by direct subscription should have priority over any other form of raising money. -This apparent impatience to get on swiftly with the job of winning the war was quite understandable; yet it- must be realised that from now on there will be ample opportunities for people to assist in furthering the Empire’s means of gaining complete control in the air. In the meantime the organisers of the Queen Carnival have achieved something of which they may well be proud and for which soldiers of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force will be extremely grateful. The duty of ensuring the adequate rehabilitation of ex-servicemen will have to be faced sooner or later in every province, and, provided the public response’has proved sufficiently generous when the final accounting is completed, Otago will have the satisfaction of being ready now to meet the heavy dalle that may be made during this war for the preservation of world freedom. Those citizens responsible for carrying the Queen Carnival onwards from good efforts to better and still better efforts have spared themselves nothing by way of mental and physical endeavour. For both the city and the country areas the past few weeks have been fruitful in entertainment all the more vital because of the significance of the aims lying at the hack of it all. Ae a climax to the whole ingenious moneyraising campaign the local radio stations are to-night co-operating in a “ listener speaks ” session of the type which has already proved highly successful in a somewhat similar cause. This time, however, organisation has been on a most comprehensive scale, a perfect network of telephone communications ensuring that in the drive towards the £IOO,OOO rehabilitation fund few corners of the province will be left untapped. In the circumstances it is confidently expected that the people of Otago will respond generously to the novel appeal.