KAITANGATA RELIEF FUND

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5493, 25 June 1879, Page 5

KAITANGATA RELIEF FUND

His Woisshj? the Mayor has received a printed circular stating, in effect, that, as the sum raised by the country for the relief of the sufferers by the coal mine explosion at Kaitangata was more than sufficient for the immediate purposes for which the money was raised, it whs thought by the committee expedient to make the capital a nucleus of a permanent fund for the relief of similar distress, thus :—l. The widows, orphans, and dependents of the meu who lost their lives in the Kaitangata explosion. 2. The widows, orphans, and dependents of such as loose their lives in coal-mining accidents throughout the country. 3. Such as shall be permanently disabled by coal-mining accidents throughout the country. It was proposed, if there remained in the hands of the trustees a surplus of more than i'soo from annual revenue, after the claims under these three classes had been met, to grant out of such surplus aid to the widows, orphans, and dependants of those who lose their lives in any mining accident, or to those permanently disabled by mining accidents. If at any time there accumulate in the hands of the trustees a sum of £1500, they shall invest £1000 as an addition to the permanent capital—the capital to be vested in three trustees, one of whom shall be the mayor of Dunedin, for the time being, and two to ha elected by the general committee ; also, that an executive committee of nine should be appointed to adjudicate on all applications for relief from the fund according to certain specified regulations. His Worship was asked to telegraph whether he approved of the scheme, or to offer any amendments. Afterconsulting with several members of the Kaitangata Relief Fund Committee of Auckland, his Worship forwarded the following reply :— " I think that the mayors of all thu leading cities, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, should be ex offlcio members of the executive committee, by this tneaus the fund would be prevented from degen-ratiug into a purely local fund, while nominally a colonial one. Of course intimation would be given to each member of tho executive committee of tho applications or claims to be made on the fund at each meeting, and thus the various mayors for the tiui'j would have it kept before them.— T. Peacock."