STREET APPEAL REQUESTS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 June 1934, Page 3

STREET APPEAL REQUESTS

Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. AND AMBULANCE. REFERRED TO COMMITTEE. An urgent request for a special street appeal day was made in a letter from the Y.W.-Y.M.C.A., New Plymouth, considered by the New Plymouth Borough Council last night and referred to a special committee previously set up and consisting of Crs. P. E. Stainton, S. J. Smith and J. Brown. A request on the same lines from the St. John Ambulance Association was also referred to the committee. The request from the Y.W.C.A. and Y.M.C.A. was signed by Miss M. Greenwell, general secretary, and Mr. J. H. Ledgerwood, secretary of the Y.M.C.A. It requested a revision of the council’s decision to group in a combined street day appeal the St. John Ambulance Association, Royal Life-Saving Society and the Y.W.C.A. In urging renewed deliberation the disheartening result of the recent trial of the combined scheme was pointed out. After deducting expenses £9B was available for division among the three bodies from a total realisation of £llO. The writers stated they were more than “just” appreciative of the retailers’ viewpoint, but would earnestly point out that as an amalgamated Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. they spent yearly in New Plymouth over £2OOO, an amount that exceeded that of any similar community organisation. To meet the undoubted demands and needs of young people the amalgamated associations had courageously increased their buildings and Equipment at a great additional maintenance expense. The citizens of New Plymouth, more than ever believing that the Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. justified its existence, had increased their demands on its services, an expense in which a street day was one of the few opportunities available for collective contribution. , It was of the opinion that three organisations grouped together for a street day appeal were too many and would eventually lead to financial disaster for the organisations concerned, wrote the St. John Ambulance Association in suggesting as an alternative scheme that it be grouped with some organisation, or failing that, given, the opportunity of an individual appeal on a week day, preferably a Monday. Cr. F. S. Grayling stressed that not one penny of the Y.W.-Y.M.C.A. expenditure was outsid? New Plymouth.