SERVICES FLOATS FOR CENTENNIAL PROCESSION WILL COST £1,250

Evening Star, Issue 26184, 20 August 1947, Page 6

SERVICES FLOATS FOR CENTENNIAL PROCESSION WILL COST £1,250

Six'floats representative of the Ser-, vices on parade in the ‘-Cavalcade of Progress ” procession during the Otago centenary celebrations would probably cost £1,250, said Mr H. H. Parata at the fortnightly meeting of the executive of the Dunedin Returned Services’ Association last night. Reviewing the progress in staging the floats, Mr Parata, the chairman of the Centenary Celebrations. Committee of the /R.S.A.. said that the Army Department, through the Minister of Defence, Mr E. Jones, was lending all the equipment necessary for the, floats. There had been only two volunteers to the appeal for marching personnel from returned men of the Second World War. The president, Mr M. S. Myers, said that employees of the Hillside Workshops had offered to provide 40 men .who took part in the 1914-18 war and I. returned men from the 1939-45 war, and they would be the marching personnel accompanying the floats. “ Business houses in Dunedin sponsoring the cost of the floats have promised £725,” said Mr Myers. “Tie subsidy .payable by the Government on this amount will bring the finances available for the floats to £966. There will only be £2OO more needed.” The report was adopted. •• “AN EXCELLENT VICTORY.” The decision of the Government to cancel all bonds that were required to he entered into by ex-servicemen university students who li'ad received educational bursaries was the outcome of the protest that had been made by the Dunedin R.S.A., said Mr Myers. The facts about the bonds had been discussed in the House, and the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner, liad announced that the bpnds were to be withdrawn. ‘ . Mr D. L. Wood suggested that official confirmation of the cancellation of the bonds should be secured from the Dominion Executive Council of the R.S.A. " AVe should advise our members that the case made against the enforcement of the bonds has been successful,” said Mr Wood. “The decision to cancel the bonds represents ah excellent victory,” the president of the Canterbury University Returned Services’ Club. Mr J. Hatrick Smith. ) FOOD PARCELS APPRECIATED. , Acknowledging the second gift of food parcels subscribed by members of •the Dunedin R.S.A. for ex-servicemen and their dependents in Edinburgh, the chairman of the Edinburgh and Lothians Council of the British Legion wrote that all the Tecipients had been delighted to receive the parcels. The president, Mr Myers, and the secretary, Mr O. L. Ferens, were invited to accept honorary membership of the .British Legion as an expression of the legion’s appreciation of the R.S.A.’s gifts of the parcels. - The President, reported that donations to the first and second appeals totalled £842 16s 7d and £313 17s 9d respectively, and that £350 worth of food parcels was at present in transit to Edinburgh." MEMBERSHIP FIGURES. Ten nominations for membership were approved, and it was reported that there had been 12 inward transfers and 15- outward transfers. Six resignations from the association were received. Two deaths were recorded. The president (Mr M. S. Myers) was chairman, and also' present were Messrs it. S. Orr. AV. P. Wellington, D. L. AVood, K. AV. Stewart, H. H. Parata, N. G. Stewart, AV. E. Earnshaw and W. G. Nicolson.