WAIRARAPA BELIEF FUND COMMITTEE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10560, 21 January 1895, Page 6

WAIRARAPA BELIEF FUND COMMITTEE .

A meeting of the local Wairarapa Relief Fund Committee waa held at the City Council Chambers on Saturday evening; present—Messrs T. Gapes (chairman), C. Louisson, W. Jacques, J. R. Tulley, Billcliff, W. E. Mitchell (honorary treasurer), F. T. Haskins (honorary secretary) and the Mayor of Linwood. The Chairman reported that since the last meeting he had received .£1 from an unknown contributor. Satisfactory arrangements had been made with the Public Trustee for disbursing the amount allotted to Mrs Maekay. No definite claims had been sent in since last meeting, but it was expected that a Mrs Talbot, who lost her husband in the wreck, would probably apply to the committee for relief. The Chairman read a telegram from Mr H. S. Fish, Mayor of Dunedin, stating, that he had not understood that any committee desired any money to be returned to the donors. What the Dunedin committee proposed to do waa that all the money collected should in the first place be put into one common purse. and after all claimants on the fund had been properly and sufficiently provided for, the surplus, if any, should be returned to each committee pro rata to its contribution to the general fund, and to be held by it for relief in case of future disasters of a similar kind. To disburse the whole of the money collected, whether warned oi not, so as to make the position of the sufferers better than it was before the loss of the breadwinner, was in his opinion an act of insane folly, and would, if carried out, prevent in future people from contributing in case of a similar disaster.

The telegram was received. On the motion of Mr Louiaaon, seconded by Mr Jacques, it was resolved that the Chairman and the Treasurer have power to deal with Mr C. Scott’s case. The Treasurer reported that the credit balance of the fund waa -£348 19s 4d, less tho amounts, JS4O and J3lO, allotted to Messrs Fisher and Dunbar, and tho amount to be given to Mr Scott. Mr Louisson moved, Mr Jacques seconded, and it was carried—" That the committee adjourn for three months, and that for the present the funds remain in the hands of the Treasurer. Should any claim arise in the meantime, the Chairman to call the committee together immediately to deal with the same ; every member of the committee to have written notice of future meetings.” The meeting then closed. •