KING GEORGE V FUND

Southland Times, Issue 23181, 23 April 1937, Page 8

KING GEORGE V FUND

POSITION OF LOCAL BODIES CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE VALIDATED (Special to The Times) WELLINGTON, April 22. Several local authorities appear to be under a misapprehension about their powers to contribute to the King George V National Memorial Fund which is being raised for the purpose of establishing permanent children’s health camps in the Dominion, and a statement of their position was made today' by the acting Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser). ' Mr Fraser said that it was the Government’s intention that the memorial should be truly national, and he pointed out that the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. M. J. Savage) had promised that any contribution by a local authority would be, if necessary, validated at the next session of Parliament. The camps, he said, would be more than a great social service. They would also be a memorial to a King who reigned over the British Commonwealth of Nations for over 25 years, and he felt sure that the two-fold spirit of the appeal would meet with a nation-wide response. “If the whole of the fund were supplied by the Government,” said Mr Fraser, “it would not be a national memorial of the people themselves. In

the same way, if the whole of the money were contributed by the local bodies, the appeal would still lack the response which the Government, the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) and others associated with it, desire. “It is our wish that the local bodies should contribute according to their means, but what is more important, we ask them to co-operate with the Government in organizing the response of the citizens within their areas. It is suggested that this could best be done by the mayors and chairmen of local authorities arranging for the setting up of local committees, and enlisting the aid of local organizations of every kind in seeking donations and devising methods of raising funds.' In some districts, through the lack of local organizations, there are no appropriate channels through which the people may respond to the appeal. - “As far as possible the amounts raised in the various districts will be credited to those districts. In his communications with national organizations, the Prime Minister made it clear that he did not wish all the money to be sent direct to the Government in Wellington. Rather he desired the local branches of these national organizations to cooperate with the local committees and to pay their collections and contributions into the local fund whether it is administered by the mayor, the county or town board chairman, or the local newspaper. At the same time, however, they are asked to advise the national body so that each national organization will be in a position, when the fund closes, to state what its branches and its members have contributed.”