POPPY DAY PLANS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17231, 10 April 1930, Page 5

POPPY DAY PLANS

GISBORNE R.S.A. SALES APPEAL ON SATURDAY Throughout the district under the jurisdiction of the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association a determined effort is to be made this year to eclipse the best previous results from the sales of poppies. Poppy Day falls this year on .Saturday, April 12, the usual practice of holding the sales on the Saturday before having been departed from in order not to conflict with Easter dates. By to-morrow evening the dis> tribution of poppies to suburban subdepots will have been completed, and everything will be ready for the annual sortie upon the public early oil day morning. The appeal is assured of a warm response, judging by the expenence of previous years, and the hope of creating a new record may well be justified. Last year the actual sales of poppies in town returned £162 11*, other sales outside the town bringing the figure up to £252. in addition to winch the R.S.A. received several handsome donations direct. It was found last year that many residents were unable to obtain poppies, and therefore had no opportunity to subscribe to the success of the appeal. In order to obviate any disappointment in this direction, the R.S.A. has arranged for subscription lists to be opened at the newspaper offices, and donations made through these lists will be acknowledged by the association. ,e j public has had ample evidence afforded it of the good work accomplished with the Poppy' Day funds in previous years, and even though the appeal had no sentimental associations it should be worthy of support. The Gisborne K.,-A. •has not emphasised the sentimental side of its appeal, feeling certain that the public needs no reminder of its obligations to men who suffered wounds and other handicaps, leading to economic loss while serving abroad with the N.Z.E.F. , There is one angle of the appeal on which a little light might be thrown with profit, however, and this relates to the manufacture of the flowers of remembrance offered for sale. In the years immediately following the war, the [Flanders poppies were obtained horn Belgium and Northern France, where the widows of men killed in action were engaged in their manufacture It was the late Earl Haig who realised that an opportunity of helping British ex-ser-vice men and their dependents was being allowed to slip, and whose energy led to the establishment of a factoiy near London where artificial poppies could be turned out cheaply to supply the whole of the British Dominions as well as the demand in Great Britain. The poppies now used by the New Zealand returned soldiers’ organisation are procured from the British Legion s factory and the initial cost goes to benefit veterans of the B.E.F. and then- dependents, instead of the pensioners <> allied countries. Thus it can be said {hat charity begins at Home— though to apply the term charity to an occasion such as this is rather distasteful Through the enterprise of the «•»•*•> the public donations to the loppy Lay funds is applied to the relief of unemployment among ex-servicemen and work rather than charity is afforded where relief is needed.