£1,000,000 APPEAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 18 November 1940, Page 7

£1,000,000 APPEAL

NEARLY A QUARTER OF OBJECT IN SIGHT ORGANISER'S SURVEY The results to date of the £1,000,000 all purposes patriotic appeal were sur--1 vcycd during the week-end by the Dominion organiser, Mr J. Abel. He said nearly £250.000 was in sight, which was quite a satisfactory result, considering the difficulties that had to be faced in organising the appeal and also the fact that, with the exception of Otago and Southland, the campaign was not yet fully under way. “There is no doubt in my mind,” lie added, “that within the allotted period of six mouths ending at Easter, subject to the people continuing to give their whole-hearted spport to the appeal, the lull £1,000,000 will be reached.” Many zones had no doubt about raising their quotas and more, said Mr Abel. Some of the smaller provinces and zones had pointed the way to some of the larger districts. East Coast, for example, already had over £17,000 in hand of its quota of £25,000. The provincial figures to date are: — £ Otago 60.000 Auckland 36.000 Wellington 31,900 Canterbury 25.500 East Coast 17,200 Southland 8,800 Hawkcs Bay 7,400 Nelson 5.200 Taranaki 3,500 Marlborough 2.400 Westland 2.200 Total £200,100 The Wellington total is made up as follows :—Wellington provincial United Kingdom appeal, £15,100; Manawatu present appeal, £8300: Wanganui, £1100: Wellington metropolitan area, £7400. It would be seen from these figures, said Mr Abel, what a wonderful effort had been made in the Manawatu in the past two weeks. PROVINCIAL EFFORTS Mr Abel said the provincial totals to date were not a true index of the extent of the patriotic effort in the various provinces. The Otago figures were the outcome of a queen carnival. This carnival had now concluded, and the money raised had been earmarked and set aside for rehabilitation. Otago province was now setting. aside money at present coming in, particularly for the relief of air-raid victims in the United Kingdom. Auckland province had embarked on large-scale activities to raise its money; the metropolitan zone had begun a campaign which would be a contest between sports clubs, the fighting services, the labour unions, and commercial travellers, and would be known as the victory carnival.

The Waikato zone, which was part of Auckland Province, was conducting a big queen carnival which would close early in December, continued Mr Abel. There were 11 queens in contest, which covered the whole of the Waikato. It was obvious, therefore, that the true Auckland figures would not be disclosed till the Auckland metropolitan and Waikato carnivals ceased. Anyone with a knowledge of big queen carnivals knew that the main funds were withheld till almost the last hour. That position also applied to the Canterbury figures. Christchurch was raising its funds by a monster queen carnival, which would conclude about the second week in December. Timaru had just completed a queen carnival, and had raised with it nearly £IO.OOO, which was just half-way toward Timaru's quota for the whole of the appeal. Nelson would be raising the major portion of its funds with a carnival, starting early in January. The East Coast (Gisborne) had been running a queen carnival with five queens; this carnival had concluded on Saturday, and it would undoubtedly be the means of raising practically ail of this district’s quota. Southland, though not doing anything spectacular, had introduced a system of regular contributions, and there was no doubt whatever about Southland’s quota being reached. WELLINGTON LAGGING BEHIND “It will be apparent from this outline of activities in the other districts,” said Mr Abel, “that Wellington metropolitan is the only area of any consequence which up to date has no major activities under way that are likely to raise its quota, which is practically half the provincial quota of £200,000. The Wellington metropolitan area, therefore, has to raise £IOO,OOO, and as the position stands at present it has a long way to go. Full credit is due to the handful of a committee that has been striving against overwhelming odds in an endeavour to get something moving in Wellington.

“As I see it, there is no other alternative than for Wellington to continue with what this committee has in hand till the end of November, and then for all sections of the community in Wellington to be called together to organise a monster queen carnival to start, say, at the end of Janary, and to last for two months. This should give the necessary time to organise satisfactorily, and also ample time in which to raise the money. This means of raising money, as I have shown, has been adopted most satisfactorily in every other major town in New Zealand, not only in the present appeal, but also, with the exception of Wellington, it was the means of raising the bulk of the money in the Sick, Wounded and Distress Appeal.”