THE PATRIOTIC FUND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16646, 3 September 1914, Page 6

THE PATRIOTIC FUND.

Statements made at the meeting of the Patriotic Fund Committee yesterday should clear away any misapprehension that may exißtin regard to the purpose of this fund. In announcing the objects of the appeal, the committee has stated that the moneys subscribed would be used primarily to provide for the dependents of men volunteering for active service and for Canterbury men who might return from the war bounded and disabled, and, generally, " in any manner that may be deemed necessary to alleviate suffering and distress aris-

ing out of this stupendous crisis." Correspondence wo have .received on this subject shows that the impression has been widely held that the third of the stated objects of tho fund was intended to cover any distress of any nature arising out of the.war, and wg aro bound to say that we have oursplves been of this opinion. It is everywhere recognised that the war is bound to cause a great deal of distress locally through the interruption of trado and industry, and we havo been labouring under the misapprehension that the relief of this distress was to bo undertaken in part by the Patriotic fund, to obviato the necessity for the multiplication of funds. It was apparently with tho same idea in mind that the City Council mado its grant, which, by the way, has yet to be legalised by Act of Parliament. Wo gather now, however, that tho Patriotic Fund is not to be used for tho relief of general distress, its benefits being confined to volunteers who go to tho front and their dependents. We are glad to havo this point made clear. Obviously the money that has so far been raised will not bn'ng in a very largo income, and if this war continues, as it seems .likely to continue, for an extended period, Canterbury will be called upon to supplement tho t 1 " 00 she has already organised for service abroad, and tho ultimate demands on the fund may be far heavier than any of us now anticipate. In these circumstances no subscriber to +ho fund, oven if he has not clearly comprehended its objects, will be disposed to quarrel with the. limited interpretation placed upon those objects by the committee. All the money that has been raised, and a good deal moro, will, in all probability, be needed before the Empire is finished with the war, and it is as well that the community should realise that the committee cannot be called upon to diminish its capital for the relief of purely local distress. . That work must be undertaken by other organisations.