NAPIER SOLDIERS' CLUB.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17572, 16 May 1919, Page 4

NAPIER SOLDIERS' CLUB.

A BROAD CONSTITUTION,

At the conclusion of Wednesday \ meeting of the Wanganui-Waitotara I'atriotdo Association, Mr Hope-Gibbous mentioned that when in Napier recent* !y he had mad© some inquiries concerning ths Soldiers' Club there. He had found, he said, that the Napier Clulj was constituted on a considerably broader basis than was the case here. In the case of Wanganui, membership was restricted to returned soldiers, i.e., men who had seen service in the Great % War, but in Napier those eligible for membership included all members of Hig Majesty's Forces (including Territoriais and persons who have enlisted for active service, and members of the National Reserve who were financial at the date of that body's disbandment, whether or not such members have seen active service.) This, of course, embraced the veterans of the South African War. As a condition precedent to membership, the rules of the Napier Club provide that "every candidate for membership shall be proposed and seconded by a member of the club, and the nameß of every such candidate, together with Ins proposer and seconder, shall be placed on the notice board, in some prominent place in the club's buildings. After the expiration of seven days the candidates for election shall be baKotted fo^ by tho members of the club's committee at the next succeeding committee meeting of the club. Two blackballs shall exclude such candidate. No candidate for membership shall be eligible for, election unless he can show that he haa a suitable character and has not been discharged from His Majesty's Forces for any offence." At present commissioned officers are eligible only as honorary members, with all privileges except that of voting, but Mr Gibbons was informed that the club's rules are to bo amended to meet this apparent anoma« ly. Very properly, in the matter of subscription a substantial concession is made in favour of active service men, the membership fee for returned soldiers being 10s. per annum, while for Territorials and members of the National Reserve it is £ I Is. In commenting briefly on these facts, Mr Gibbons expressed the opinion that it would'be in the best interests of the local returned soldiers were they to .similarly extend the membership of the local club. By so doing they would largely overcome the objection, entertained by « good many citizens, to an institution which tended to keep the soldiers as a class apart from other members of the community. Nothing but good, he considered, could result from the comminglinc; of the men who had played their part in the Great War with..the veterans who had seen service before them, ;ind with the younger men—the Territorials — who were undergoing training to fit them to meet any emergency which might arise in the future. Further than that, by broadening tlte qualifications fpr club membership they would correspondingly broaden the circle of friends to whom they could appeal for the financial assistance necessary to the consummation of the object they had at heart.