THE VETERANS' HOME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21295, 23 September 1932, Page 13

THE VETERANS' HOME

PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT MEisi FROM THE GREAT WAR The ultimate extension of the Veterans' Some ,to provide accommodation for 60 inmates is foreshadowed in the report of the Veterans' Home Committee presented to the executive of the. Auckland Provincial Patriotic and War Relief Association yesterday. The fact that there are at present vacancies in the home for suitable applicants and that very few applications are refused was revealed in the course of the discussion on • the report. The niimber of inmates in the home at present is 26 and the approximate cost for each veteran for food and service is £1 5s weekly. "The veterans of the Maori War and earlier wars are becoming fewer in number," stated the report, "and it is clear that the time is approaching when eligible veterans of these campaigns will not be with us to require the care and "attention of this institution. In these cir cumstances, necessitous men of the Great War will be eligible and will no doubtfrom time to time be admitted io ultimately complete therefrom the full complement of the home, which, from the present number of 26 can reasonably, with the present building accommodation, be increased to 40., However, by providing separate quarters for the superintendent, the accommodation available would be suitable for 60 inmates. It is for this objective that your committee believe you •will, m the near future, have to proyide." Sir George Richardson, who said he was very satisfied with the way in which the home was'being managed, asked why the number of inmates could not be increased. The ahairman, Sir James Gunson, said lack of revenue had been the trouble. Last year they augmented it by £6OO or £7OO ana this year for the first time they would be in a satisfactory position. In the past, for year after year, they had had deficiencies, but now they would be in a position to increase the accommodation by gradual stages. . The chairman said that applications for admission were made to the superintendent and passed on to the Veterans Home Committee, by whom very few were declined. He would like to assure Sir George that they had not just accepted the position without consideration, but they had felt in the past that they had incurred the maximum of liability they were jus ified in accepting. It would be seen from the report that a course of progressive development was now under review. The report was adopted.