EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1929, Page 11

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF FUND

AN IMPRESSION CORRECTED.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.

Wanganui, July 22. Referring to the statement in a Press, .telegram Horn Westport in the morning papers to the effect that the Central Relief Committee had put its money into the general fund so that it may be put out at interest, Air. H. E. Holland, ALP., said it was deplorable that the machinery of the Press Association should be used to propagate an erroneous idea, and one that coqld only have the effect of interfering with the work of raising relief funds. It was wholly untrue to say that the purpose of the general fund was to put money out at interest. The prime Minsiter, in reply to a question from Mr. Holland, had made it -clear that, while the money in the fund would earn interest, the principal would be at call and would not be tied up in any way. Westport, Last Night. With reference to a statement by Air. H. E. Holland, M.P., concerning the Press Association message from Westport it appears as if there were an omission as the message handed in to the Westport office read: “In face of this the central committee asks that the local committee put their money into the general fund so that it may be put out at interest.”

The statement of receipts and expenditure presented to Saturday’s meeting of the Buller relief committee .showed payments totalling only £795 16s Id, this including £4OO 7s 5d for relief of Seddonville residents arising out of the flood, yet a rough estimate of the private damage, excluding certain parts of tho district from which no estimates has yet been received, was £82,000. The purport of the message was to show how slowly relief was being afforded and, further, to show that owing to searching questions concerning the financial circumstances sufferers by the quake were asked to answer in the forms issued by the central committee; many of them, hard hit though they be, would rather shoulder their burdens than ask for one penny from the relief funds.

Earthquakes are still numerous, amongst the most pronounced to-day being at 6.40, 10.14 a.m., 1.30, 6.25, 6.3 and 6.50 p.m.