THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times FRIDAY JULY 16, 1915. PROVIDING FOR THE WOUNDED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 57, 16 July 1915, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times

FRIDAY JULY 16, 1915. PROVIDING FOR THE WOUNDED.

The Official Organ of : The Franklin County Council. The Pukekobe Borough Council. The Tuakau Town Board. The Drury Road Board. The Karaka Road Board. The Pukokoho West Road Board. The Pokeno Road Board. The Wairoa Road Board. " Wt nothing extenuate, nor set down auaht in malice." published Mondays, Wednesdays AND FRIDAYS.

In a letter appearing in our correspondence culumns in this issue. Mr James Roulston vary pertinently points rut the absence of any offrial movement in Pukekohe in the wsy of raising funds or for the provision of means to asßi9t our gallant soldier "boy\" who return wounded to the Dominion, partially or totally incapacitated and unable to pursue business duties Mr Koulstnn makes a strong plea to the Mayor to call a public meeting so as to decide on some concerted form of action and, provided a representative authority id set up, he makes the handsome offer on behalf of hi* brother, Mr William Roulston, who is away in Australia, of a contribute 1 of £IOO (£SO cash and £SO in len monthly intsalments of £6 each), together with a further £SO from his (Mr James Koulston'B) tirm of Koulston Bros. On Sunday last a sum of £lO odd was collected for the cause of the wounded eoluicrs on the occasion of the church parade of the Pukekohe branch of the National Reserve, and a fairly respectable sum should be forthcoming for the same object from the Mock Court to be held in Pukekohe on Thursday of next week. In thu abS;nce of any local controlling organisation all this money, as also Messrs Houston's donations, will be forwarded to the Auckland fund. Mr James Koulston is anxious that the wounded from the Pukekohe district should be relieved tf anxiety as to their future. Wbetter the beet course is to furrn a local Relief Committee to act independcnlty or work as a branch of the Auckland Central Committee, Mr Koulston apparently leaves it to a fublic meeting to decide, fie is lo be tommuoded for the patriotism which he once again shows, and it is to be hoped that his letter will bear fruit so that a publi: meeting may be called.

Mr rtfe'ence to the arrangements for the holding ol' a ' Mock Court cannot, however, be I

taken as representative of local public opinion. He suggest) that an; money raised should be by authority and not by independent action, and further that a function of a burlesque order is out of place for such a cause as the Wounded Kniriiera' Kunri. On the first noint.

butely Mr Koulston does not suggest that individuals by public spirited action shoold not endeavour to assist by all possible means desetving objects. Entertainments or gatherings are no leas worthy because they do not happen to have

iha ball mark of official recognition and the funds raised thereby have not been rejected on that score. "Strike while the iron is hot" was the idea of the promuters of the Mock Court, the example having been set in Auckland and other cities and being a particularly attractive form of entertiimicnt just row. As to Mr Koulston's criticism of the principle of securing income for a nobh cauee from an amusemeit source, we must confess that Mr Koulston can only te the mouthpiece of a very small minority of tte community. The Auckland Fund has to thank the Mock Court held in that city for a strikingly substantial addition to their finance, and many other big gatherings ot a more or lesi similar nature have previously had eminently satisfactory reeul's all over the Dominion. Ihe time may be grave, as Mr Koulston states, but even in the irenchep, as one will have setn it tbey perused Sergeant Schoefield's letter from Gallipoli in our last issue, the troops "joke and laugh" although death is all around them. It is human nature to make the best of things. Far bstter is that fo than to have mourning and grist for ever prominent. At this distance from the sceoe of action, J i we believe, it would be the wish of "the boya" that those they have , hft behind should join together, at least on ociasione, for an evening's erjoyment, especially if that enjoyment is the means of helping to provide lot their (the troops') necessities. Then again there are a good many persons who, by reason of inability to contribute a sum of ) tufficitnt amount to warrant the inclusion of their names on a subscription list, have refrained * from making an offering. The entertainment, Buch ad arranged, affords such people opportunity to " contribute in a small way either by , atterdance or by the purchase of a i ticket for the good of the cause.