FOR LONELY MEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 493, 30 June 1932, Page 18

FOR LONELY MEN.

Books and Magazines to be Sent to Camps. COLLECTION BY SALESMEN. Only lonely men realise the true value of something to read. Long weeks away from the amenities of city life with newspapers on the front lawn and libraries at the back door, make them turn in desperation to any piece of paper which bears the printed word. In some cases that stray newspaper which has found its way up to the back country, is passed from hand to hand until it becomes tattered and almost unrecognisable. For lack of books and newspapers men will read almost anything—calendars, the labels off packages, or even the paper which wraps their supplies. Unemployment camps do not usually boast of well-stocked libraries, and when a number of men get together on winter nights like these, what little reading material there is becomes both exhausted and dilapidated. Realisation of this has prompted the delivery salesmen of the “Christchurch Times” and “Christchurch Star” to make a generous offer to the management of New Zealand Newspapers, Ltd.

It is an offer to collect in their own time, books, magazines and reading matter of all kinds, from those to whom they deliver papers. These will be divided up and sent to the various unemployment camps round the city. The collection will be begun immediatel> r , and people who wish to make donations need only inform the delivery salesmen, who will pick up the books on their rounds. A central depot will be established in the publishing department of New Zealand Newspapers, Ltd., on the ground floor at the Gloucester Street entrance. People who prefer to bring in their contributions themselves can do so. As the delivery salesmen of the “ Times” and the “Star” call at nearly every home in Christchurch and the suburbs, it is expected that their selfsacrificing offer will have fruitful results. It is only reasonable to expect that from the thousands of homes visited should come a harvest of reading matter sufficient to establish wellstocked libraries in every camp.