PRACTICAL ASSISTANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27210, 13 October 1949, Page 5

PRACTICAL ASSISTANCE

EX-SERVICE PERSONNEL PATRIOTIC FUND BOARD ACTIVITIES PA WELLINGTON, Oct. 12. Twenty-one applications for assistance from ex-servicemen were declined on investigation by the Welfare Committee of the New Zealand Patriotic Fund Board during the past year, it was disclosed at a meeting of the board to-day. During the year, however, 103 grants and loans totalling £12,396 were made to ex-servicemen for various purposes. Twenty-eight of the applications were for assistance to enable perma-nently-disabled discharged servicemen to purchase cars. The Welfare Committee reported that these personnel required transport to assist in their rehabilitation or because they were so badly disabled that a car was necessary to enable them to move around. Grants for the purchase of cars totalled £4507, The welfare funds had also been utilised to send the son of a discharged serviceman to the United States for a spinal operation and to ex-servicemen’s children who had contracted infantile paralysis. During the year, the committee reported to the board, funds totalling £SOOO derived from the estate of the late Mrs Helen Ross, of Wellington, were expended in special grants to ex-servicemen requiring assistance.