A “TREASURE QUEST."

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2714, 23 June 1925, Page 11

A “TREASURE QUEST."

REDUCTION IN PRIZES. FOUR SHILLINGS IN POUND. LONDON, April 1. The "Treasure Quest” competition, which offered £IO,OOO in prizes to the contestants, and was inaugurated in 1923 for the benefit of the destitute Irish loyalists, has been closed with an offer to the prize-winners of 4s in the pound. This has been accepted, and the two equal first prize winners, who should have divided £BOOO between them, have accepted £BOO each. These prizes have only been made possible by a ■whip round among surviving members of the committee and by geenrous assistance on the part of an individual unconnected -with the “Treasure Quest.”

Brigadier-General C. Prcscott-Becie, D.C.0., a member of the Loyalist Appeal Committee which ran the “Treasure Quest,” explains the position of affairs*thus: “The committee consisted originally of Lord Willoughby de Broke, the Earl of Ranfurly, Lady Constance Milness-Gaskoll, Mrs. Webster, Mr. I. W. Raymond, and myself. Lord Willoughby de Broke and Mrs. Webster died: Mr. Raymond was taken seriously ill. and was ordered to go to Now Zealand. Thus three were left, and as I had been living in the country I had not been able to attend more than one or two meetings. I came to London to live, and I was asked to take things in hand. I found that there was not enough money to pay the prizes. The position was serious. The auditors reported to me that the books were absolutely correct, and had been well kept, and that all moneys had been expended in furthering the competition. “We then tried to do what we could for the prize-winners, and we raised among the committee and the executors of those who had died, and from another individual, a sum of £2600. That was put up last year, and to settle trade debts we have now rised another £2600. I have seen the prizewinners and explained the circumstances fully. They proved the nicest lot of people you ever met in your life.”