DOMINION OFFICERS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 73, Issue 6282, 16 September 1946, Page 5

DOMINION OFFICERS

RED CROSS APPOINTMENTS MR A. E. GIBBONS THE NEW CHAIRMAN Mr A. E. Gibbons, of Waikato, was elected last week as chairman of the j Dominion executive of the New ZeaRed Cross Society. He will Mr C. G. White, of Wellingwho has been a member of the executive for seven years and chairman for four years. Mr Gibbons, who served overseas in the 1914-18 war, has been prominent in Red Cross work for many years, being the president of the Waikato centre since its formation. Mr Gibbons is well known for his sports activities in the North Island. He is president of the Waikato Cricket Association, and a past-president of the Waikato Rugby Union. The following were elected to the Dominion executive:—Major J. Abel (Wellington), Major-General P. H. Bell (Auckland), Dr A. Gillies (Wellington), Messrs J. D. Campbell (Southland), Norman E. Lee (Wairarapa), C. V. Smith (Dunedin), C. G. White (Wellington), Mrs J. Winstone (Whakatane), and Miss M. G. Havelaar (Christchurch). The Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes was re-elected president of the society, and Mrs T. HL Lowry vice-president. Mr J. T. Spears was re-elected treasurer. Twelve representatives were appointed to the joint council of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society. Two life members of the New Zealand Red Cross Society were elected at the annual conference of the Dominion council. They were Major J. Abel, M.8.E., V.D., of Wellington, and Miss L. G. Small, of Wellington. Major Abel has been active in the society since the epidemic after the 1914-18 war. He was chairman of the relief committee which handled all the work during the Hawke’s Bay earthquake. Major Abel had a prominent part in the formation of the New Zealand Red Cross Society when it changed over from a branch of the British Red Cross. He was elected the first Dominion chairman in 1932, and has served on the executive continuously since that date. During the recent war he was organiser for the Sick and Wounded Appeal. He also inaugurated the Prisoners of War Office, and was Dominion chairman until all the prisoners had returned to New Zealand. Miss Small was for two years director of the Junior Red Cross in New Zealand, and before the war was an active leader in the work of the Voluntary Aid Division. Miss Small, who is attached to the Department of Health, has done much to advance the work of the Red Cross in the Dominion. Tributes to the work of Major Abel and Miss Small were paid by many speakers at the conference yesterday. A levy of £5 will be made on all subcentres of the New Zealand Red Cross Society during the coming year to consolidate the society’s finances. It was stated at the annual conference of the Dominion council, when this decision was made, that centres would be informed that the levy was necessary to improve the financial situation of the organisation.