MAYOR’S APPEAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 210, 18 August 1933, Page 5

MAYOR’S APPEAL

FOR THOSE IN DISTRESS SOME TYPICAL CASES. HOW THE FUNDS ARE USED. The Mayor of Hastings’ Relief Fund has been formed to assist the distressed and indigent people in this town. The fund is entirely dependent upon the generosity of the public for the carrying out of the work. It >* owing to tho great demand* made on this fund that it has become necessary for tho Mayor to issue this appeal. All the work of the fund is carried out under the control of the Mayor and the Central Relief Committee, who are representatives of all charitable societies and organisations in the town. The secretary is in daily attendance in the Borough Council Chambers and personally interviews all applicants for assistance, and help is then given according to the merits of the case. Tho Mayor’s Fund under the Central Committee, finances all the affiliated societies and organisations that may require monetary assistance and thus all charitable work done in the town is controlled by the one fund. Applications for the past six .weeks, received at the Mayor’s office alone, average 13 per day, and many and varied are the enquiries received. A mother with a family requires food, and 30/- will not go far when one has to pay rent and keep six children. She is then referred to the Good Cheer Food Depot and she and her children receive a hot meal each day. Another woman has a sick husband and two babies. She cannot afford milk; will the Mayor give her so manyquarts this month? The other day a young woman required a bed; her child was too big for a cot; could she have blankets too? She is sent to the Red Cross Society, who meet her needs. Men come in, obviously agitated; the bailiff has been sent down to put them out as they have not paid their rent and there is no chance of their meeting arrears. They must have anothei house, and the rent must not be more than 12/6 per week. What does the Mayor’s Fund do? The landlord is written to and asked if he will keep the tenant, if he pay 12/6 per week, say for the next six months. The landlord agrees, and each pay-day the relief worker pays his rent into the central office and receives from the Mayor’s Fund a small order for groceries to help him through. These are a tew of the hundreds of cases helped by the Mayor’s Fundpeople who are desperately in need of a helping hand at the present time. Relief workers are by no means the only people needing assistance, for 30 per cent, of the total applicants are persons who, through the present times, have been forced to seek assistance. Since the formation of the Central Committee, the Mayor’s Distress Fund ha* assisted over 500 people. These folk unist of necessity apply again, and if they are to receive assistance, further help will have to be given to the Mayor’s Fund. FINAL DAY TO-MORROW. To-morrow is the great and final day of the Mayor’s special appeal. Please come prepared. We are to raise £3OO, and can if you will help. Flowers will be sold at the Mayoress’s stall at the corner of Railway road and Heretaunga street. Watch the barometer at the same corner register tho amounts we receive. The patient's temperature must rise to 300 by 8 p.m. to-morrow. There will be 300 collectors about the town. Be sure to be in town during the afternoon when the Aero Club will drop their lucky numbers. You might be the one to receive the free trip next Saturday Collectors are asked to report at the Borough Council Chambers for their boxes ten minutes before the appointed time.