OVER-SUBSCRIBED!

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19605, 10 January 1936, Page 3

OVER-SUBSCRIBED!

BEST INVESTMENT EVER. Children’s Health Camps. fine public support. GOVERNMENT’S GRATITUDE. (Special to "Star.”) WELLINGTON, Jan. 10. “It is with great satisfaction,” announced the Hon. F. Jones, Postmas-ter-General, last night, “that 1 received an intimation that the Health Stamp eampagin, inaugurated by my Department on September 30, achieved its splendid objective of £IO,OOO for the Children’s Health •Camps within three months, and that on December 31 the amount to credit was £10,772. One feature which is particularly gratifying is that during Christmas week no lesfe than £BOO was added to the fund, showing that these camps were not forgotten during the festive season. Money is still coming in, but it is intended to withdraw the twopenny health stamp and the special health covers from sale at the close of Post Office business to-morrow. Postmaster-General’s Comment.

“The campaign was based on the principle that monies raised in any of the 48 hospital districts of the Dominion would be expended for the benefit of children coining from those districts. The aim was to set up local committees to administer the funds and to assist in their collection. The employees of my Department readily undertook, in addition to their ordinary duties, this great opportunity for public service, and the 422 postmasters and their staffs throughout the Dominion rendered valuable assistance in the organisation and the work of the local committees, which have functioned so effectively in the promotion of the campaign for the sale of the Health Stamps.

“In addition, a large number of the personnel of the Postal Department organised and carried out sales of Health Stamps at many attractive functions, and the postmen collected a large sum of money by house-to-house sales. The responsibility of approving the local committees, by whom funds will be expended in accordance with the prin ciples laid down at the commencement of the campaign, rests with the Hon. P. Fraser, Minister for Health, and all monies collected up till the end of November have been distributed. The final allocations will be made as soon as the accounts can be completed. “As Postmaster-General, I would like to convey the thanks of my Department to all those who assisted in the collection of this large sum of money, willing helpers, so numerous, that one cannot particularise, and I would like to assure all engaged m this tine effort that I appreciate their generous services.” Campaign Workers Thanked.

Commenting on his colleague’s statement, the Hon. P. Fraser remarked: “As Alinistcr for Health,

I regard the complete success of the Health Stamp campaign with gratification as an indication of the whole-hearted generosity of our people and providing an assurance that this valuable welfare work for the children will enjoy greater financial resources than in past years. Every child lias the right to develop under favourable conditions free from the crippling inlluences of unsound health, and in promoting this ideal there is a definite place for the children’s health camps as well as the institutions controlled by the State—the Hospital Boards and other bodies. The children wlm K'ceive benefit are selected by lb" school medical officers as most suitable for treat lament at the health camps. The voluntary work associated with these camps is a feature of great value, and it is a pleasure to me, as Minister for Health, to know that there are so many kindly and capable people prepared to give their services for the good of these children, and that the results of their work have been so markedly successful. I would like, on behalf of the Government, to endorse the appreciative references made by the Postmaster-General to the voluntary work so willingly done for the sake of the children by members of the committees throughout the Dominion, and particularly should 1 mention the self-sacrificing enthusiasm of the employees of the Post and Telegraph Department, who added this service to the manifold duties already required of them in the course of their normal day s work. That the objective should have been achieved in so short a space of time suggests that there was a thorough appreciation on the part of the public of the value of the Children’s Health Camps.”