RETURNED SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19927, 21 April 1928, Page 12

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

INTEREST IN ASSOCIATION. INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP. That there is a rapidly growing revival of interest by cx-servico men in the Returned Soldiers' Association is revealed in the annual report of the Auckland Association. Membership during the past year increased by 207, making the total number of financial members 850. The executive expresses its intention of still further increasing the membership so that the association will not bo under the necessity of further encroaching on its small capital account to keep alive. It is stated in the report that any ex-service-man, no matter with which British forces he served, is welcomed as a member, while provision is also made for the election of honorary members. The year's increase in membership was the greatest in the past seven years. Valuable work is done by the secretary, Mr. E. H. Sharp, in assisting returned men in putting their cases before the Pensions Appeal Board. In the past year, he assisted with 185 appeals, of which 122 were upheld, 24 were deferred and 39 dismissed. Unemployment had been very serious during the year, but the association, by means of the Poppy Day fund and the canteen fund interest, was able to do a lot to l'elieve the position. As the result of a remit sent to the annual conference in June last, the sum of £4500, portion of the interest on the canteen funds for one year, was handed to tho New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association to relieve unemployment. Of this sum £I2OO was allotted to the Auckland Province. The sum of £l6O was distributed to provincial associations, and £IO4O was administered by the Auckland Association. With this money, which was subsidised pound for pound, some 504 men were given temporary work at wages of 14s a day.