SILENT WORK WELL DONE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1931, Page 6

SILENT WORK WELL DONE.

The fact that over £4OO was realised as a result of the recent Poppy Day appeal in North Taranaki has a double significance. It directs attention to a great, silent work that is going on behind the scenes in our midst, and also to the fact that the public is in sympathy with this work, even though people probably do not realise to what object they are actually contributing. Two years ago North Taranaki gave a little over £5OO to the Poppy Day fund. Last year the amount decreased to something over £4OO, which was understandable owing to the drop in dairy produce prices, and this year, in spite of expectations io the contrary, the final result of the appeal will perhaps be even greater than that of 12 months ago. It is a great tribute to the organisation of the appeal and to the generosity of the people of the district, and a definite testimony to the public recognition of the worthiness of the object. Nor is this philanthropby misplaced. Captain Hartnell gave a very interesting account at the New Plymouth Rotary Club’s luncheon on Monday of the work done by the Returned Soldiers’ Association. In Taranaki, as in the rest of New Zealand, the social aspect of the association’s activities has practically faded away, but there is always plenty of serious work to be done. At the present time, as indeed will be the case for many years to come, a growing number of returned men or their dependents are in dire need of assistance. The association’s only source of income is the member’s subscription of 30s. a year and the net results, of the Poppy Day appeal after the poppies have been paid for. The recent North Taranaki appeal will provide something dyer £3OO for the local association. Members’ subscriptions totalling £l5O bring the income up to £450 —little enough, after a nominal salary has been paid to the secretary, to give relief in even the most gravely necessitous cases. Ohly those familiar with the inside w-orking of the association can realise how well the money is spent. In most cases where relief is given the recipients have almost to be dug out of their retirement, so reluctant are they to be dependent on their fellow-beings. They are still manifesting the invincible spirit of the war days, and accept assistance only as a last resort. And in remembering the debt it owes to maimed and suffering ex-servicemen and their dependents, a debt that no amount of beneficence at this stage can ever repay in full, the public should not forget the work of Captain Hartnell himself, to whose energy and guidance the local association largely owes its own present vitality.