PATRIOTIC FUNDS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15789, 10 April 1919, Page 4

PATRIOTIC FUNDS.

Among the many heritages that have been left by the world war is that of “surplus patriotic fundsA’- What is to be done with these? asks the Dunedin Star, which answers its own question thus; There should not, one ‘ would imagine, be much doubt as to the answer. It is understandable that doubt may arise as to the disposal of captured ships, guns, and munitions of war, or as to the expenditure of funds raised for, a specific object when that object, owing to the swift changes in the war situation, has ceased to exist; but there can bo but one answer, we think, to every proposal to devote surplus patriotic funds to objects other than those for which they were originally intended. It is possible, of course, to place a very liberal and elastic meaning upon tbe term “patriotic.” But we hardly think that anyone who at any time hag subscribed to a fund or funds raised for the benefit of sick, wounded, disabled, or out-of-employment members of the forces and 'their dependents can for a moment have seriously contemplated the coming of a time, within so brief an interval, when the objects for which such funds were raised had ceased to operate, and that it would be both possible and permissible to divert them to such other' objects as the building of soldiers 5 halls and soldiers’ clubs. Much leas does it appear credible that within little more than four months of the signing of the armistice—with some tens of thousands of New Zealand soldiers still scattered abroad on land and sea, with deaths and accidents and sickness still among the daily probabilities, and the world still reeling, and likely to do so for many a long day, from the aftermath of the mighty conflict—the time is opportune for appropriating a sum of A 10,000 (although were it only £5 or less the principle involved is the same) from funds raised for the objects named towards the building of a soldiers’ club.