23 FIGHTER PLANES

Grey River Argus, 6 December 1940, Page 8

23 FIGHTER PLANES

NEW ZEALAND’S GIFT £145,600 Subscribed [Per Press Association] WELLINGTON, December 5. Rt. Hon. P. 'Fraser announced today the total so far received as subscriptions to the Aeroplane Fund for Britain, amounted to £145,607 5s sd, contributed as follows (nearest pound) —Northland £5,010, Auckland £39,599, Taranaki £4,625, Marlborough £1,298, Westland £747, Otago £529 Southland £21,000. Total, £102,940 8s sd. In addition to district collections, the following sums were forwarded direct to the Government: New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Coy. £7,500, Women’s Division Farmers’ Union £5,008, New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board £30,000, European and Native residents of Niue Island £l5B 17s; total £42,666 17s. At the request of the Mayor of Dunedin, collections in Otago had been deferred, but are now being made. The appeal generally was launched on the basis of £lOOO,OOO (New Zealand currency) to be donated for the purchase of fighter planes, any balance over this sum to go towards training pilots, under the Empire Air Scheme in Canada, or the purchase of war machines for the defence of New Zealand. The Government has now decided to donate the whole amount to the purchase of fighter planes, having regard to district collections and the amount contributed by the Meat Board. A request is being made for the purchase of twenty-three planes, representing £145,000 already collected as follows: Northland one, Auckland five, Waikato one, Taranaki one, Hawke’s Bay two, Wellington three, Marlborough-Westland-Nelson one, and New Zealand three. Mr Fraser has received the following message from the British Minister of Aircraft Production, Lord Beaverbrook: “Were any fresh evidence necessary of the utter devotion of the people of your Dominion to the Empire’s cause, it would be overwhelmingly provided by the contribution sent to me by your High Commissioner in London for the purchase of fighter aircraft. Our hearts are uplifted and our spirits fortified by this magnificent gesture of support. You enable us to strike ever harder blows at the evil forces of Nazi and Fascist aggression, bringing nearer the day when the hosts of Hitler and his Italian jackal will forever bite the dust. In sending to the Dominion of New Zealand this expression of my heartfelt gratitude and thanks, I know I speak for the whole British nation, and indeed for all in every land who love freedom.—Beaverbrook.”

ARGENTINE GIFTS FOR PLANES. RUGBY, December 5. Following! a gift of four Spitfire planes in September, the British community irp Argentina sent £25,000 to buy aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm. Acknowledging the gift the First Lord of the Admiralty and Minister of Aircraft said: “It will giv e the world a most splendid proof of the determination of the British people.”