RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14704, 3 June 1920, Page 3

RETURNED SOLDIERS' ASSOCIATION.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 2. At the Returned Soldiers' Conference the .report- of the Committee set up to go into the question nf organisation was submitted in the afternoon. This provided for the inauguration of a district organisation being to promote the welfare of returned soldiers within the limits prescribed by certain clauses of the constitution. Each district, however, should' be subject to the of the Dominion Council of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Assocu!.-. tion. It was recommended that the District Committee should forthwith call a conference of delegates from the local associations to determine their own form of district organisation, annual conferences, voting power, executive, and the like. Each District Conference should forthwith establish groups -of local associations within it* 1 district, provided always that the total membership of the local asssociition comprising any such, group should not be less than 400 financial members s>.t the time the group is established. Tn no district should there be any iiior n than ten groups, and at no time should there he more than six districts in the Dominion. As to the number of dole gates to the Dominion Council, it was suggested that each group having up to, and 1 including, 1000 financial members, as at March 31 preceding the annual conference, should have one delegate; from 1001 to 2500, inclusive, two delegates: grouns having over 2000 members, three delegates. Each .district should be entitled to one vote for every 400 financial members, or, part thereof, comprised in the total financial membership of such district. Every delegate should have one vote, and the balr.nce of votes to which any district was entitled should be distributed among the delegates at the annual meeting of the district. The conference should decide that any local association might, if it thought fit, send- a delegate to any meeting of the Dominion Council, who should have the right to speak, but not to vote. The report was adopted, after having been amended in the direction of providing for the establishment of five I districts as follows: Auckland, Wei-. : lington, Nelson., and Marlborough, ' Canterbury, and Otago. It was also decided that the local association should pay the organisation capitation direct to the district executives, and the headquarters cavitation direct to headquarters. The. report, as amended, was ordered, to be incorporated in the constitution. Delegates to the conference were tertained at a smoke concert to-night by the Wellington Returned Soldiers' Association.