THE COLLECTIVE EFFORT

Southland Times, Issue 20043, 3 December 1926, Page 6

THE COLLECTIVE EFFORT

In connection with the Hospital Saturday collection to be taken in the streets of Invercargill to-morrow, it is well to remember that the interests of the Hospital Saturday Association are not confined to the hospital or to the town any more than its appeal is limited to the street. The association organises its annual appeal on behalf of several bodies which could not carry on if they did not derive revenue from this source and as their activities serve the country as well as the town the collection is prosecuted in both places so as to ensure genuine co-operation in these charitable aims. To many people the retention of the term Hospital Saturday is confusing because it gives the impression that the public is being asked to contribute to the funds of the Southland Hospital Board. The change in the title of the body which organises this annual effort could not be effected without expense which is not deemed advisable because the aim has always been to keep the administrative expenses as low as possible. A glance at the association’s balance-sheets shows how admirably this policy has been followed. The association’s complete independence of the board is shown by the fact that any money that has besn paid to the board by the association in the pastlias received a Government subsidy just as private gifts have done. Nor is the association . concerned only with bodies whose charitable work centres on the hospital. Nine district organisations participate in the benefits of this effort, and most of them give what may be called provincial service. This year the calls on these bodies will be rather heavier than usual and they are therefore looking forward to a response more generous than usual. This year, too, some of the funds obtained will go towards the cost of a new ambulance in which the whole district is interested. It is to be hoped that the wide scope of the association’s interest will be recognised by a response which will reveal the co-operative spirit in town and country. Collection Saturday is the opportunity given to the public to assist bodies which do a necessary work in an unostentatious way, bodies which for the most part carry on without aid from the Government, relying on public generosity. It makes an appeal that is hard to resist, an appeal which should be readily met, particularly this year when the need is especially urgent.