PARCELS FOR BANBRIDGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26773, 17 May 1948, Page 3

PARCELS FOR BANBRIDGE

. Criticism of Scheme Some criticism was expressed at the meeting of the Oamaru Returned Services’ Association on Saturday night of the action of the former executive in holding £169 5s 8d in a fund for food parcels for the residents of Banbridge. Mr N. H. Colquhoun, who introduced the matter, said that the balance in this fund at the end of the 1947 financial year was £53 Bs, and in the past year the figure rose to £IBO 3s 9d. Of this amount, £ll 5s Id was spent on parcels, leaving a balance of £169 5s Bd. "Has the Food for Britain Fund been forgotten ” Mr Colquhoun asked. Mr A. C. Piper, the secretary, said a letter was forwarded to Banbridge asking for the names of 50 men to whom parcels could be forwarded. Trouble had been experienced with the Customs Department in 4 England, but this had been finally settled. He again wrote to Banbridge, stating that no further parcels would be forwarded until letters were received from the recipients of the parcels stating .they had arrived. At the present time the association had 150 parcels, 150 tins of fat, and 150 tins of other goods on hand ready to be forwarded. Mr Colquhoun referred to a statement in the Gore Association's annual report stating that 50 parcels were forwarded monthly to the association’s “ adopted ” town in Scotland. If this could be done in other places, It could be done in Oamaru, Mr Colquhoun said. When asked whose responsibility it was to see that the parcels were forwarded regularly, Mr Catto said that the executive, as a committee, was to blame If they were not.