POPPY DAY APPEAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16927, 16 April 1929, Page 7

POPPY DAY APPEAL

ANNUAL SALE SATURDAY

LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS Last year the Poppy Day appeal in Gisborno resulted in the raising of a fund of £2lO, which formed the nucleus of the Returned Soldiers' Association's unemployment relief scheme during the past winter. This year's appeal will be made on Saturday, and it is hoped that the record sum raised last year will be surpassed. The readiness of Gisborne residents to respond to any genuine appeal has been well recognised, and there cau be no doubt of the worth of the cause for which the sale of poppies is held annually- Regarded solely as a business proposition, it is worth maintaining, but apart from that altogether, thero is the support which every citizen owes to a cause having for its inspiration the relief of distress among ex-servicemen.

More and more attention is being directed in legislative circles to the need for some national recognition of the plight of returned soldiers who, though discharged lit from the N.Z.E.F., have siuco found themselves subject to illnesses and other disabilities which are traceable to war service; but though some comprehensive scheme for the establishment of yoterans' homes is likely to be adopted within a year of two, there is a real need for the continuance of the Poppy Day appeal. Between the elassiiicatious of '/fit" and "unfit" men there is a whole range of minor classifications, which concern men not able to meet the fierce modern competition in the labor market, but hardly qualificG by their degree of unfitness for admission to veterans' homes. In any case, the establishment of the homes cannot help immediately the numerous cases of hardship such as the R.S.A. has become accustomed to handling during the past year or two, and if these cases are to receive even meagre relief, money must be found by the returned soldiers' organisation. The public is well aware that the money expended in the last two years on. relief of ex-servicemen's unemployment has added to the amenities of the town, and an assurance has been given by municipal officers, who supervised the expenditure of the money, that the men employed gave full value for their wages. It is not surprising, therefore, that the R.S.A. executive makes its appeal this year with confidence in the support of the public. A point of particular interest to

business men is that the poppy sales of the last two years comprised about 7000 blooms, at the most. The returns from these sales, at Is per bloom, would be about £3;">0; yet by the judicious employment of this comparatively small amount, the Gisborne R.S.A. has been able to render available for the relief of unemployment and the improvement of the town a total of £2172, or more than six times the value of the poppies sold during • the two ygars. Subsidies and donations from other sources were obtained, and the Government contribution of £1 for £1 claimed on the whole of the money, and in this way the original sum was pyramided, with most satisfactory results.