MINE TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23594, 1 March 1940, Page 9

MINE TRAGEDY

GLEN AFTON RELIEF POSITION OF THE FUND SUBSCRIPTIONS TOTAL £1478 "The Glen Afton relief fund has not yet closed," said the town clerk of Huntly, Mr. C. Hay-Chapman, in a telephone conversation with the Hkrald yesterday, when there was referred to him an inquiry from a corrspondent concerning the distribution of the fund. In a letter to the Hkiiadd the correspondent stated that although the mine accident occurred five, months ago, none of the widows had received any money from the fund.

"I have made inquiries and all that has been done is for the Mayor of Huntly to visit all the widows and try to find out if they had any bills they would like paid," the correspondent said in his letter. "Nothing more has been hoard. I wasj under the impression that the money collected was to be given to the widows for their own immediate use."

"We will probably close the fund, which now stands at £1478 6s 4d, some time next week," Mr. Hay-Chapman said, in reply to the correspondent's inquiry. "The chairman of the fund, who is the Mayor, Mr. W. C. E. George, interviewed one or two of the widows to find out their financial position and others have been written to. Some of them have left the district, and in some cases their affairs are being handled by the Public Trustee or by solicitors, to whom we have had to write and we are still awaiting replies from two of them. "When all the replies are received we will have a meeting to decide about distribution of the fund," Mr. HayChapman added.