PATRIOTIC COUNCIL

Grey River Argus, 5 February 1942, Page 8

PATRIOTIC COUNCIL

monthly meeting held.

Mr G. A. Perry (Mayor of Hokitika) presided over the monthly meeting of the Westland Provincial Patriotic Council last evening. There were also present: Mrs F. W. Shall crass, Messrs F. A. Kitchingham J. Murdoch, A. Elcock, K. May, 4. H. Denton j. B. Kent, J. W. Greenslade, A. B. Spiers, J. Smeaton, W. Clayton, J. Unwin, E. Kennedy, and D. J. Evans (secretary). The revenue for December was as followsGreymouth Committee £ 161 18s 4d; Hokitika Committee _ £62 15s 6d: Wataroa Committee £5O; Ross Committee and W.I. £4l 19s 6d; Inangahua Committee £26 17s sd, Kokatahi Committee £2O 12s; Wa.ho Committee £l7 10s; N.Z. Railways, staff contributions £34 19s 10d; Runanga Committee £9 10s Id; J. M. Gibb, Waiho £10; Hokitika Savings Bank £10; Butter and emnloyees £3O; P. and T. staff (9tn) total £52, £5; total, £4Bl 2s Bd. The expenditure for December was as follows: Hokitika Committee, on a/c parcels £33; Greymouth Women s Committee, imprest, £l6 15s lUd; total, £49 15s lOd. The revenue for January was as follows: Hokitika Savings Bank £10; N.Z. Railways, staff contributions £33 16s 9d; J. Havill (Arahura) £5; L. H. Jackson (Okanto) £2; Kokatahi Committee £1 12s 6d; Greymouth Committee £5B 16s lid; Ross W.I. (parcels) £2 2s; ;Ross Committee £23 10s; Waiho Committee £22 10s; Runanga Committee (part S. and W.) £ll 0s 6d; Inangahua Committee £24 Is; Hokitika Committee £62 16s 3d; total, £257 5s lid. The expenditure for January was as follows: National Board, wool £3B 10s; National Board, on a/c general levy £1612; National Board, on a/c Sick and Wounded £807; Mans Ltd., aspirins for parcels £l2 7s 6d; Grey County Committee, goods £7 5s 2d, Greymouth Galway Committee unrpr'est) £5; Hokitika Committee, parcels £3B 18s sd; total, £2521 Is Id. Reserves were drawn on to the extent of £2,000 to meet lew accounts. A further £BO7 is payable this month. The statement of funds was <as follows- On deposit (interest earning) £23,202 10s; cash at bank £412 13s lOd; total £23,615 3s lOd. The National Patriotic Fund Board wrote supplying particulars of the Christmas Day envelope appeal, and explaining that it applied only to permanent 'Post Offices. The secretary said that so tar £15,000, it was understood, had been collected, which was an excellent response. . The Board also write supplying specimen order forms on firms in connection with rehabilitation. The secretary said that 200 had been ordered. The Board wrote recommending an immediate appeal for contributions to the All Purposes Fund. Another tetter supplied particulars ot levies: For Sick and Wounded Fund, £881; for Prisoners of War Fund, £2346; total for Westland £3227, in addition to the general levy, £6447, a total of £9674 for the financial year. . ~ o . , The secretary said that the Sick and Wounded Fund was in credit, but the Prisoners of War Fund was overdrawn, and the general levy account was overdrawn to the extent of nearly, £55,000. Letters were also received from the Board as follows: Asking for early payment of the October-De-cember levies; stating that no assignment of charge on the pay or allowances of any member of the forces was effective under the regulations; deferring the proposed collection for sale of rare books, to await particulars of the scheme. The Board also forwarded particulars of the Canteen Funds. The secretary said that a substantial profit was shown. Information was forwarded by the Board that free steamer and road service warrants would be issued for naval personnel on leave. The Board forwarded the names of four retailers in Greymouth operating the postal tobacco scheme for men overseas, except in the Middle East. The secretary said that an endeavour was being made to get a concession in the Middle East, but owing to the Egyptian customs this wjas difficult.

RAISING OF FUNDS. Letters were received , from the Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the 1 Red Cross Society, in reference to collections by one fund, including Red Cross work, and from the National Patriotic Fund Board, stating that the conference decision must stand, and there was no reason why the St. John and Red Cross organisation members should not assist to raise local quotas. Mr Kitchingham said that too much publicity could not be given to the fact that there was no reason why individual members could not help the All Purposes Appeal. There had been an undercurrent of passivity, and a lack of enthusiasm jand help. Members of the Red Cross esteemed their privileges highly. It was an international body, and could not help the soldiers when they were well. "But there was nothing to stop the members from throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the work of collecting. Figures recently supplied had shown that only £51,659 was to be expended out of the Prisoners of War Account this year, so that the fund would stand permanently at £400,000 for the end of the war. The National Patriotic Fund Board had, therefore, to raise, through the Provincial Councils, £233,841. As this sum, nearly a quarter of a million, was to be expended through the Joint Council of St. John and the Red Cross, it behoved members of the two bodies to assist in every possible way. It was a question whether the £170,000 budgeted for the supply of parcels for prisoners of war would be sufficient. At -the present time the Joint Council was sending away 4000 parcels a week at a. cost of £3OOO a week. It was quite possible that the £170,000 would be insufficient. Members of the organisations should be publicly appealed to drop the .attitude of apathy and help to raise the amount Mr Spiers said that a branch of the Red Cross Society had been formed in Kumara, and it was un--1 derswod that they could raise all they liked and hand it over to the Patriotic Fund. They had been doing this. , . , On the motion of Mr Kitchingham, it was decided t 0 send the Board’s letter to the branches of the St. John and Red Cross organisations asking them to co-operate. A letter was received from the Postmaster-General, replying, regarding the postage of private parcels. and staling that the concession made already was a substantial reduction on overseas rates for ordinary parcels. It was decided to send the reply to the Reefton Committee. It was decided to approve of a suggestion from the Inangabua County Committee, that the Chairman of the Inangahua County be added to the Executive The Christchurch Welcome Club wrote inviting the Council to arrange for another tea at the Club, as it had done formerly.

The Chairman said that the former tea had been arranged verv economical?-/ and satisfactorily, having cost £42 Mr. Kitchingham said that the facilities of the Welcome Club were available to every man from the

West Coast who went to Christchurch. . , It was left to the Chairman and Secretary to carry out arrangements for another tea. The Returned Services’ Association wrote conveying a resolution inipressing on the patriotic yuthorities the necessity of setting aside adequate funds for after care of soldiers and supplementary assistance to rehabilitation. Mr. Kitchingham said that hianibers were unanimous that there must be a substantial sum available at the end of the war. This year the amount for thio particular fund had been increased by £2,400. The Secretary said that this time rehabilitation would probablv be better organised by the Government and there would not be such a demand on the committees. It was decided, on the motion of Messrs Kitchingham and Clayton, to write to the Association, pointing out what the committee had done and stating that it was heartily in accord with the policy. The Hokitika Committee forwarded two resolutions: (1) Pressing for payment of £5 to each man on return; (2) applying for a radio appeal for patriotic purposes as _ a means to launch a campaign ror funds. Mr. Elcock, referring to the question of the £5 grant, said that members of the Rehabilitation Committee who were on the Hokitika Patriotic Committee, said that no lead had been given bv the authorities, lhe attitude the Rehabilitation Comm.ttee took was that, if the men got the £5 by asking for it, some, who didn’t like to ask, would not get it. It would be a more generous gesture to give the money in all cases. Returned Soldiers had said that the £5, was given in the last war. Mr. Murdoch said that it would be advisable to find out what other district's were doing. It would be bet" ter to have uniformity throughout the country. ar 0 Mr. Kitchingham referred to a discussion on the matter at a conference in December. He said that a lot. of men would not dream of applying for the money, but others would be only too anxious to get*it. But th e feeling of the conference wau that in no cases it should be paid as a right. If that course wei/ adopted, it would save a lot of trouble. If 2,000 men from the West Coast were paid the £5 each it would mean £lO,OOO with very little to show for it, whereas there might be cases whgre it would be advisable to give a man £2O to' enable him to settle down

•The question was raised whether the £5 was paid as a right in ihe last wai. Mr. Kitchingham said that they were verv free with the allow- ( ance then, as 'the mufti allowance was low. Now it was £l2 10s. It was decided to find out the National Council’s decision and what was being done elsewhere. The matter of a radio appeal was left to the Chairman and Secretary to make further inquiries, with the aim of making a combined appeal for the whelp of the patriotic district. PARCELS FOR PRISONERS. Mrs. Shallcrass raised the question whether the parcels sent to prisoners of war should not be reduced to one per man per fortnight instead of one per man per week. She said that everyone was anxious to give ihe prisoners of war as much as possible. but in view of the large increase in the number of prisoners it might be advisable to cut the nuiner down to one a fortnight, which would be a generous allocation. At present, £3,000 a week was being spent, and this would increase. The same applied to the parcels sent every three , months. She felt ashamed of having to get £TOB from the Grevmouth Borough and County. It was a lot of money, and it would ba hard to cut down later. The Secretary said that the matter was dealt with bv tne National Patriotic Fund Board. Mrs. Shallcrass said that it could be a recommendation. The Secretary said that the prisoners should be given as much as possible. Mr. Greenslade suggested that the possibility of a restriction having to be made should be used as, an added incentive to get people to give more generouslv in the appeal. They might come to a point where it would be advisable to curtail the amount sent. In the meantime, it would be a pltv to do so.. It should be po nted out to the public that if thev wanted these gifts through the Red Cross Society continued they should give more freely. The suggestion of a limitation might help laggards who were backward in giving what thev had available. Ho hoped the Public would respond and there would be no restriction necessary. Mr. Kent said that one thing would help—to remember that no private individual could send parcels. It would be a pity to have to cut them down. If the fund failed the prisoners would fail to get the necessary parcels. i Mr. Kitchingham said that tne next-of-kin could send a parcel every three months. Mr. Kent: That would leave them hungry. Mr. Murdoch said, that the time was hardly opportune now to give publicity to reducing the number of gifts. The matter might come up later on. Mr. K. May said that in Ross, the policy was to stand on their own feet and raise their own money. There were less than 500 people, and twenty or twenty-two individuals and one company, by regular monthly contributions, were raising double the Ross quota; It was perhaps not desirable that such a small number should raise all the money, but .it showed what could be done. On*firm adopted the method of subsidising its employees’ contributions A general discussion on means ‘of raising funds follower:. No action was taken on a suggestion by Mr. Mav that meetings be held at Greymouth and Hokitika in alternate months. Members stated that Grevmouth was the most central position.