RELIEF OF DISTRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 659, 12 January 1933, Page 9

RELIEF OF DISTRESS.

Heavy Calls on Mayor’s Fund. On his return to Christchurch to-day from a holiday spent in the North Island, the Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.), was brought face to face with the acute distress in the city and the heavy calls that are being made on the Mayor’s Fund. A letter from the secretary of the North Canterbury Hospital Board stated that during the week ended on January 7 the number of applications for assistance from the special allowance from the Mayor’s Fund was 327, and 325 of the applicants were assisted, at a total cost of £62 15s Id. Besides this, 43 bags of coal were sent out. The letter stated that the amount was over the allowance, but in that particular week there seemed to be a definite shortage in many homes. This was brought about by the holidays and possibly the fact that some of the men had received relief pay in advance. The Mayor’s Fund is now in debt to the Hospital Board to the amount of £Bl9 3s lOd, and it is Mr Sullivan’s intention to examine the position of the fund closely during the next few days. He stated that it was possible that he would have to curtail the granting of special relief because of the depletion of the fund. Meat Supplies At An End. The honorary director of the Citizens’ Relief Association (Mr J. W. Woodbury) has advised the Mayor that the Commissioner of Unemployment has intimated that the Unemployment Board has no further stock from which the association can be supplied with meat. Mr Woodbury states that this means that the association will have no meat to issue to the depots after January 21.