ASSISTANCE WANTED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16664, 24 September 1914, Page 9

ASSISTANCE WANTED.

MAYOR’S APPEAL TO CITIZENS

The following appeal to tho citizens cf Christchurch has been issued by the Mayor:

“Laclios and Gentlemen,—lt once more falls to my lot to appeal for financial assistance, this time on behalf of the sufferers by the Huntly mining disaster, which occurred on September 12. No doubt this calamity has been overshadowed by the war, hut it is nevei’theless real. I have fully satisfied myself of the urgency for immediate assistance. Several of the widows will not participate in the widows’ pension, as their children wero born outside the Dominion, and it will be a long time before they can receive compensation under the Act. “ There are twenty widows and sixty children unprovided for, while there are forty-three deaths. Large ns this number is, there is another aspect, and that is the largo number of those who have lost their loved ones, and on whom they depended for their support. In one case there is a family of seven children, the youngest a baby motherless before the accident, now both motherless and fatherless; while a second family of' four are left in the same position. In a third case, both' father and son were killed, and the second son seriously injured'. ‘ “The chairman of the Hnntly Town Board appeals for help. I am sure that appeal will not bo in vain. Mr H. R. Smith, Town Clerk, has kindly consented to act as local treasurer. Any sums sent to the Town Clerk or myself will bo acknowledged in the daijy paper, and sent on to the authorities at Hnntly.—Yours, .faithfully, “H. HOLLAND* Mayor,”