CANTEEN FUNDS HELP

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1932, Page 10

CANTEEN FUNDS HELP

HISTORY OF THE MONEYS RELIEF FOR EX-SOLiDffiERiS. WAR FUNDS DISTRIBUTION. The history of the New Zealand canteen and regimental trust funds was outlined to the annual meeting of the South Taranaki Returned Soldiers’ Association at Hawera on Friday night by Mr. A. E. Gorton, Wellington, assistant general secretary of the N.Z.R.’S.A. The speaker also answered a number of questions in connection with these funds and the funds administered for relief purposes by the National War Funds Council. Dealing with the canteen and regimental funds, Mr. Gorton explained that at the close of the war the proceeds amounted to £71,000, being the profits from canteens conducted throughout the N.Z. Expeditionary Forces and the remainder of war regimental funds. This had been augmented to the extent of £75,000 by the share allotted to New Zealand from the profits of the British •Expeditionary Force canteens. The New Zealand fund therefore became £150,000. In 1921 a board was set up by the Government to administer the fund and it was decided to invest it. PRO RATA PAY’MENT? It had been suggested the whole amount should be paid on a pro-rata basis, but as that would have meant something less than £2 apiece when the whole was divided among returned men and dependants of those who fell in the war, the suggestion was not considered seriously. In its decision to invest the fund the board was guided by the experience of the aftermath of previous wars and came to the conclusion that, with the large patriotic funds already in existence in New Zealand to assist in the rehabilitation of returned soldiers and the relief of distress the canteen and regimental funds should be the last resort to be touched. Up till August, 1931, the board had paid about £23,000, this sum having gone to the Trentham scholarship fund and contributions to the publication of New Zealand war histories. At the end of August, 1931, the fund, with accrued interest, stood at £202,255. Last year a request was made that £lO,OOO for the relief of unemployment be made available from the interest, which amounted to about £l’l, ■ 000. EX-SOLDIERS’ REMEF. The board had decided to make up to £lOOO monthly available, and this was being distributed among the 55 branches affiliated with the N.Z.R.'S.A. Last year £13,500 was expended from the fund, this consisting of £12,000 to the R.S.A. for unemployment relief, £lOOO to the Trentham scholarship fund and £5OO in compassionate grants, the last-named figure being mainly in relieving distress in Hawke’s Bay resultant on the earthquake. It would thus be seen that the corpus of the fund was already being reduced. While the income of the total sum had been £ll,OOO it ■would in future, in view of the legislation relating to a reduction of interest, be lowered to about £9BOO. To-day the total fund Avas £197,000. * Various suggestions had been made as to the final distribution of the fund. One had been that an annuity scheme should be adopted, but with about 100,000 men to participate such a scheme tvas practically worthless. The friendly societies of the Dominion, with 107,000 to participate and a capital of over £4,000,000 available, had found such a scheme inipracti able. It had also been urged that a plan should be followed to provide for the gradual absorption of the fund so that it would last for another 30 years, by which time the average age of . the returned men would be about 70 years. DISTRIBUTION USELESS. ' The actuarial basis for this was that ,on the old rates of interest the sum of £1'1,500 could be expended annually. The board was at present spending more than that and at the existing rate the fund would disappear long before the 30-year term. It had also been suggested that the whole of the fund should be distributed immediately for unemployment relief, but with approximately 8000 unemployed returned soldiers at presenlt in the Dominion only seven weeks’ work at 12s a day could be provided. The whole fund would therefore be only a drop in the bucket in dealing with the unemployment problem. In reply to a question Mr. Gorton said the administration charges of the canteen funds amounted to an average of only £ll9 a year for the last 10 years. TARANAKI WAjR FUNDS. Referring to the national war funds as distinct from , the canteen funds Mr. -Gorton said that with the grouping of the moneys held by a number, though not all, of the various patriotic societies, the national war funds, when placed under the control of the council, stood at £247,000, a big proportion of which was in fixed assets such as soldiers’ club buildings, which could not be realised upon so long as the buildings were required by returned soldiers, this fund had been reduced to £157,000 of which about £120,000 was cash. The income last year was £7400, and the disbursements about £9OOO, so it could be seen that the corpus of the fund was being rapidly reduced. Answering inquiries, Mr. Gorton explained that last year the council had forwarded £BOO from imprest for general assistance purposes and £2OO for unemployment relief to the Taranaki branch committee, the headquarters of which was at Stratford. .

Dissatisfaction was expressed by the meeting with the administration of Taranaki’s portion of the war funds and a motion embracing thia in the form of an emphatic protest, together with thesuggestion that the South Taranaki allocation be carried out by the local R.S.A. was passed. An investigation into the present and past administration by the committee with headquarters at Stratford was also asked for.