The Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1915. PROVISION FOR SOLDIERS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 11 January 1916, Page 4

The Star

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1915. PROVISION FOR SOLDIERS.

Delivered every evening by 5 p'olook in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eitkata, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, HurleyviUe, Patea, Waverley.

Much has been done, yet much still remains to be done, to provide generously for returned soldiers who have suffered to any serious extent in fighting for the Empire in the present war. Pensions have been provided for under certain conditions for such men, and for the dependents of men killed in action or incapacitated during active service. Then large sums have been collected •',by means, of private, subscriptions and personal donations, with which funds have been created for; the "relief of wounded and invalided soldiers. A Returned Soldiers' Employment Bureau has also been created by the Government, whieh has likewise reserved large areas of land specially for settlement by soldiers who may prefer to earn a living in that way after,they have completed their service in the war. The privately constituted funds are administered by Patriotic Committees, who, within their own areas, help wounded or invalided soldiers in various ways very helpful to the men. Yet, notwithstanding all this, it is felt that it is not enough; or, rather, that the administrative bodies or agents need to be linked up and co-ordinated in order to ensure complete efficiency in the interests of economy and of the soldiers themselves. In this part of the Dominion it is felt that not enough has yet been done in the matter of raising private subscriptions for the benefit of wounded and invalided soldiers. At a meeting held here on Saturday it was therefore suggested by Mr Pearce, the member for Patea, that an endeavor should be made to raise £20,000 for the purpose. In his opinion, districts should be defined and collecting committees set up for certain areas. These committees should wait on all the settlers; and as this is a rich district he believes that the sum mentioned —£20,000—will he subscribed, especially as the amount so far obtained 'is so small as to he, prima facie, not. creditable to the people of the district. The plan suggested by Mr Pearce has been, followed in other parts of the Dominion with satisfactory results, very specially §0 . i n the Wairarapa, and, prima, fagig, it would be well to. give it a thorough trial in Ssath Taranaki, The Patriotic Committees oi the district would *heh. be in a position to co-operate with other similar bodies in working out an administrative scheme which would be simultaneously effective within subdistricts or provinces and throughout the Dominion, -W^at was done towards' this at Saturday's meeting will, in effect, supply .the draft of a platform to be considered at the public meeting, which it is intended to hold here on the evening of Thursday, the 27th instant. It is likely, too, that the meeting will be used as an opportunity to consider other means'with a direct bearing on the public desire that the utmost should be done for the country's soldiers who stand in need of assistance of the kind which the country is anxious to provide for them. At the send-6ff to the recruits at the Hawera railway station yesterday morning, the Stipendiary Magistrate (Mr W. R. Haselden) made a suggestion which should be capable. of general application in connection with both local and general efforts to be friendly' to soldiers in every practicable way. What he said was that "if at any time the men wanted anything done for them they should communicate either with the Mayor or himself, and they would do all they could for them." Perhaps if this were carefully considered it might be found capable of application in the ultimate scheme of administration now in process of evolution. What is needed is as little as possible in the way of mechanical machinery, and as much as possible of- personal human sympathy and interest. Should the meeting of the 27th instant take up the suggestion with that end in view, it could afterwards be placed before the conference which the Minister of Internal Affairs is appealing to Patriotic Societies to hold in Wellington on or about the first Wednesday in February. The Minister takes the view that "the Government's responsibility ends with the discharge by the Military and Medical Boards of men from the service, and presumes that the Patriotic Committees, who are in possession of very large sums raised for sick and wounded soldiers, will fully recognise that after the men have been discharged their responsibility begins." His proposal, therefore, is that a conference of those committees should be held in Wellington at the date suggested, to co-ordinate their functions and administrative machinery so as to avert overlapping and ensure co-opera-tive or common action in connection with their funds where this is necessary in the interest of economy and the soldiers. The efforts now pending here . should place South Taranaki in a posi- j tion to take ah effective part in the conference, the nearness of which I should.therefore.have a stimulating influence on those efforts