DEPENDANTS OF MEN IN NAVIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 2 August 1941, Page 5

DEPENDANTS OF MEN IN NAVIES

Christchurch, July 31. A resolution urging that it be a recommendation to the National Patriotic Fund Board that a sum of, say, £IOO,OOO, be raised immediately throughout New Zealand to establish a fund for the widows and orphans of men in the Navy and the Merchant Navy was brought forward by Mr D. C. McKechnie (Geraldine and Temuka) at a meeting of the Canterbury Provincial Patriotic Council. Mr McKechnie said it had been | suggested that something tangible : should be done in recognition of the [ work of the two navies by providing for the dependants of men who lost [their lives. Mr Burnett, M.P., had i offered to the Geraldine and Temuka zone £3OO a year from the Burnett j family, £ 150 a year to be set aside j for the dependants of men in the navies. 1 Mr H. S. Feast, secretary, said that j it had already been suggested that the ; N\w Zealand Sheepowners’ Acknowledgement of Debt to British Seamen Fund controllers be appointed the colj lecting authority for moneys given in | this cause, the moneys to be paid into | the national fund, and the expendi- ! ture to be controlled by the sheep- ! owners. i “That gets away from the principle of having the one collecting agent in | each province,” said Mr McKechnie. : “It would be better if it were taken I up all over New Zealand as one big effort to avoid duplicating.” Mr W. W. Mulholland said he thought the sheepowners’ appeal, would not reach the public*, but only sheepmen. It was decided to hold the question over until the next meeting.—!