HOSTEL FOR MERCHANT SEAMEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 15 August 1944, Page 4

HOSTEL FOR MERCHANT SEAMEN

TO-MORROW’S STREET AND SHOP DAY A street day is to be held in Nelson to-morrow in aid of the British Sailors’ Hostel Fund. Although there are three seamen's missions operating in Wellington there is need for a sailors’ hostel where seamen can find suitable accommodation and care while in port, or when convalescing after hospital treatment or for those, who, from one cause or another, have missed their ships and are waiting to join another. The society has already paid £9.500 to purchase a building in Wellington for a hostel, the remodelling and furnishing of which is estimated to cost £12,000 to £15.000 more. Of this amount £6OOO is in hand or in sight and, where street days have been held, large sums have been collected. Our merchant seamen have shown great bravery and endurance in the ordeals through which many of them have passed. To their sacrifices we owe many of the comforts of civilised life and the public are asked to contribute generously to-morrow towards the welfare of all those who sail under ‘‘the red duster.” In addition to the street day collection a shop day will also be held: donations of goods and articles may be left at Newman’s Garage, or the Depot. Trafalgar street, opposite Hotel Nelson, at any time up to to-morrow morning. MAYOR HOPES FOR GENEROUS GIVING 'To the Editor] Sir,—To-morrow in Nelson there will be made, with the consent of the City Council, an appeal by means of street collection and shops, on behalf of the hostel fund of the Wellington Branch of the British Sailors’ Society Inc. The work of the Merchant Navy is being increasingly recognised by the people of the Empire and is carried on quietly in the face of bombing, torpedoing, shipwreck and all the hardships associated with work in the war zones. I feel sure there is no need to stress the importance of the service of the Merchant Navy, and I recommend the appeal to the people of Nelson in the confident hope that they will give generously in recognition of the wonderful work of these men.—l am, etc., E. R. NEALE, Mayor. Nelson, 15th August. ORGANISER TO SPEAK OVER THE AIR TO-NIGHT Listeners in to 2YN will hear a short address to-night at 7 o’clock on the appeal for the Merchant Navy Hostel Fund by the organiser, Mr C. A. H. Hutton.