N.Z. PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 280, 26 November 1943, Page 3

N.Z. PATRIOTIC FUNDS

COMFORTS AND AMENITIES FOR TROOPS SCHEDULE TOR NEXT YEAR. (P.A.) Wellington, Nov. 24. To meet expenditure in supplying comforts and amenities for the New Zealand Forces in the year ending September 30, 1944, the National Patriotic Fund Board estimates that it will require £173,500, less unallocated miscellaneous revenue of £50,000, leaving a net total of £663,500. This is £125,500 less than the amount budgeted for last year. The board’s estimated requirements are to be placed before the annual Dominion patriotic conference, which opened in the old Legislative Council Chamber, Parliament Buildings, today and will probably extend into tomorrow. In addition to the board, the 11 provincial patriotic councils are represented. Under the system at present in operation the provincial patriotic councils are required to raise funds for their own purposes and also to ?nable the board to carry out activiies of a national character. The respective quotas of the provinces in meeting the board’s estimated expenditure in the current years are as follows:—Auckland £210,827, East Coast £16,256, Hawke's Bay £37,156. Taranaki £29,625, Wellington £145,970. Marlborough, £9455, Nelson £15,261, Westland £9156, Canterbury £101,748 Otago £58,852, Southland £29,194. Towards these amounts, most of the provinces are shown as having credits in hand, ranging from approximately £2OOO to over £20,000 in one case, and these sums reduce correspondingly the amount required from these provinces. A detailed statement covering six pages gives a comparison of estimated and actual expenditure for 1942-43. The amounts budgeted for under the three main headings and the net expenditure last year are shown as follows: —General account, estimated expenditure, £567,000; net expenditure, £491,461; sick and wounded, £114,000; £92.469. Prisoners of war, £lOB,OOO, £14,893. Sundry creditors are estimated at £50,000, so that of the total estimated expenditure of £789,000, the not expenditure amounted to £648,823.

Of the total sum of £789,000 the provinces were asked to raise for the board, only two provinces, Auckland and Canterbury, failed to reach their quota--Auckland by £1164 and Canterbury by £18,503. The board’s budget for this year makes provision for the following items of estimated expenditure;—New Zealand personnel overseas, £231,750; expending agents (Y.M.C.A., etc.), £129,000; troops in New Zealand, £45,000; administration expenses, £2500; contingency fund, £100,000; assistance for relief of distress overseas, £50,000; sick and wounded, £102,250; prisoners of war, £53,000. "No figures have been included for prisoners of war parcels,” states an explanatory' note, "as this money is not now raised by provincial patriotic councils. It is merely a National Patriotic Fund Board adjustment with the Government. The amount expended last year for food parcels for prisoners of war was approximately £280,000.” Reference is also made to the fact that the board’s expenses—rent, freight, salaries, and telephones—are borne by the Government from the Internal Affairs Department Vote. Over 40 remits, which hare been grouped according to the subject, are down for consideration. Other matters for discussion include the system of recording payments made to discharged servicemen or their dependants from patriotic funds specially earmarked by the provinces for this purpose, pre-armistice and’ post-war relief, and the methods to be used in raising funds in the current year.