WAR ON “TAG DAYS.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20653, 29 June 1935, Page 8

WAR ON “TAG DAYS.”

LONDON’S STREET APPEALS, LIMITED BY HOME OFFICE. LONDON’, May 22. Tag days, which the public regards as a nuisance and the police regard as a costly way of raising money for charity, will be strictly regulated in the future. Both the Home Office and the London police have declared war on tag' days, known in England as “flag days,” and intend drastically to reduce their number. First to feel the effect of the (authorities’ disapproval was the Salvation Army, which was forbidden to conduct its annual street collections in its “self-denial week.” The British Empire Cancer Campaign, which annually conducts a drive for funds, asked again for Empire Day (May 24), but had the date deferred because of the multiplicity of appeals. Last year there were four big appeals through street collections in a single fortnight, and, the police point out, in some provincial centres there have been as many as five tag days in a single week. The Home Office intends to limit tag days to 24 a year, roughly one a fortnight. Furthermore, the provincial police are refusing to grant permits for local flag days that would conflict with national collections. The average cost of a flag day is 12 per cent of the proceeds, but, the police report, small organisations frequently find that it costs them 40 per cent to conduct a street collection. There will be a drastic pruning of this type. The city of Birmingham required that charities conducting public appeals must file a balance-sheet of costs and profits, and costly appeals fall under a ban. There are rules for collectors as well. They cannot importune the public and must not etation themselves within 30 yards of each other, nor can individual collectors wander from their appointed spot. Some charities have protested against the new rules, but the general public approves, as at some seasons of the year it has been almost impossible to walk down a street without being stopped every few feet by a girl or a youth jiggling a tin box and sticking a flag in one’s coat.