CANTEEN FUNDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19523, 24 June 1933, Page 5

CANTEEN FUNDS

FOR RELIEF OF DISTRESS. EX-SOLDIERS’ VIEWS. A recommendation of the Unemployment Committee that £25,000 of the Canteen Fund be made available for the relief of unemployed soldiers was carried by a large majority at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association in Wellington.

It was stated that cases of distress amongst ex-soldiers were frequent. There were 9818 registered unemployed in Auckland, over 25 per cent, of whom were soldiers, and 600 unemployed exsoldiers in Christchurch.

The following resolution was carried: "That in view of the increasing number of unemployed returned soldiers who are living in circumstances of dire poverty and distress, the Canteen Funds Board he requested to make a sum available for the relief of unemployed returned soldiers during the ensuing twelve months.” The fund, it was urged, could be built up again when condition become more stabilised, whereas this was a time of dire distress.

Mr B. J. Jacobs (Palmerston North) pointed out that the board were merely trustees, and their duty was clearly on the lines of the resolution. Mr W. E. Leadley said that after meeting commitments the fund would still contain £183,000 next February. Surely the resolution was in order. Mr J. D. Harper (Wellington) did not support the resolution, urging that the country was looking after the unemployed generally, as well as after ex-soldiers. When the money would be most urgently needed, owing to increased disability of the men in a year or two, there would perhaps hot be the same amount of relief being afforded, as things might have improved so much that the same extent of general relief would not be given. If there were to be any drawing, let it be on the patriotic funds. They were already eating into the capital of the Canteen Funds—(“No! No!”)—and he thought it should be conserved as rigorously as possible. Mr N. H. Colquhoun (Oamaru) said this was not capital, but an accumulated fund. He thought it should be released to relieve dire distress. Mr P. S. Anderson (Dunedin) spoke of the need for the relief of distress at the moment. Conservation could be overdone. There was no sense in keeping a fund until those it was collected to benefit were dead. He believed that if the lines of the Canteen Funds Board were followed in regard to patriotic funds, the beneficial effect would be widely felt.