PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3455, 1 June 1920, Page 43

PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION

A meeting of the executive of the Otago Patriotic Association was held in ttie Town Hall on Tuesday morning, and was presided over by Mr J. J. CiarK. Mr M. M'Allen wrote resigning his position on the executive, which his present employment made it impossible for him to conr tinue to fill. —The resignation was accepted; Mr M'Allen to bo thanked for the servicea he had rendered during*the last five years; the chairman suggesting that there was no necessity to fill tiie vacancy until the annual meeting. " The treasurer's report was adopted on the motion of Mr Cx. L. Denniston. It showed the following ...balances: —Belgian Relief Fund, £7142; 'local relief fund, 9s 9d; Great Britain and Ireland Relief 'Fund, £138; Expeditionary Force Fund, £7B; Unconditional Fund, £843; Y.M.C.A. Fund, £4 16s; Poles' Relief Fund, £79. The Queen Carnival Fund was overdrawn. The anoes in the aggregate amounted to £8287.* The Finance Committee's report was adopted. The Chairman moved .the adoption of the report of the Soldiers and Dependents' Welfare 'Committee., and said there were one or two matters of considerable interest to members. In connection with the expenditure he desired to call attention to the fact that it indicated that the committee had not confined its work to Otago soldiers only. All the cases had been thoroughly investigated and reported upon, and recommendations had been made as to fair treatment. It was gratifying to know that there waa no case whers any society had not been thoroughly satisfied with the way the cases had been dealt with. The report gave a resume of the very large number of cases the executive was dealing with, and also of the care bestowed upon men .in hospital. It also gave a brief resume of the resolutions passed at the meeting of the Advisory Board, at which the executive had been represented by the secretary. The executive wished to reaffirm its previous decision that it was inadvisable to determine a policy for the disposition of the balance of the patriotic funds at present. It was no use taking up members' time with laboured argument, but it was impossible to determine the exact policy to be observed with, regard to the funds because cases had to be dealt with on their merits. They often found that men had been repatriated, and found some occupation, and had broken down again, and he felt it would be unfair that such men should be' debarred from getting assistance, simply because they diet not come within the category suggested ai the conference up north. At the same time, they felt that their chief charge wm as to disabled and partially disabled soldiers, and they were compiling information as to what their liabilities might be in this direction. It was the' feeling of the committee that they shoiild set aside *a portion of the money they had got for men who were disabled and therefore prevented from following their avocation. A matter of importance was loans. They had been in the habit of granting loans on second mortgage to assist men buying houses, or taking up laud. Up to the present £7OOO had been advanced to help these men. They had; always laid down the principle that they would not help these cases unless thev wenfc before the Land Board, but the operations of the board were temporarily suspended in. this direction, and th.e executive had to arrange for advances, as advances by the Land Board. They felt the time had now come when they would have to call a halt in making these advances, and recommended that any future advances should be made out of money refunded by soldiers who had already received grants. They (the executive) got in £3OO a month from this source, and -hoped that sum would be increased as time went on. The total amount they felt justified in giving in one grant was £SO, and they proposed to lend that at 6 per cent., and if a man made repayment regularly they w-ould remit 5 per cent, in interest on this amount lent, which was a*? inducement to the man to keep his payments up. That meant that they only charged the man 1 per cent, for money. He also called attention to the last paragraph in the report about the Women's Patriotic Association, which had decided to wind up and transfer any money in hand to the Patriotic Association. He indicated that something in the way of recognition of the services of the Women's Association would be the subject of comment later on. The association had contributed about £603 a month to help men in and out of hospital. The women had been the strength and the soul of the patriotic work carried on. Mr Speight made some reference to loans falling due, and said they had been borrowing from the bank at the rate of 5£ per cent. Til ere was about £40,000 maturing at the eild of the year, and a further sum . of £50,000 maturing five years later. He moved that in connection with loan moneys the FinanSe Committee take into consideration the position of loan moneys, and report as to" the best method of dealing with them, the proposition being agreed to. The -Chairman moved that the Finance Committee be requested to investigate the position of the funds of the Soldiers and Dependents' Welfare Committee, and report as to the best way of utilising them, the motion being agreed to. -^ The Chairman again reverted to the funds left over from the operations of the Women's Patriotic Association, and moved that the Patriotic Association agrees to accept control of the funds, Mr G. L. Denniston seconded the motion, which "was agreed to.