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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 6, 2 August 1946, Page 5

, abroad regarding the members of the Brigade who attended football and hockey matches in the Whakatane district. It was a fairly common belief that the ‘Zambucs’ were paid, and well paid for all their attendances at sports fixtures. Mrs Wylde said she had been very hurt at this contention, which she had done her best to rebutt. St. John service was entirely voluntary and the whole idea regarding the services rendered to sport or to anything else was that it should be entirely free. There had been an outcry in Waimana recently when an accident occurred, because there were only juniors there to attend. Critics declared that the St. John members were paid to do the work and should be there. It was a great pity, she said that so little was known of what the Brigade did and what it stood for.

Superintendent Ramson jokingly suggested that members might be receiving secret pay from some dark source but he could say that all attendances were carried out by members gratis to anybody or any organisation in fulfilment of the highest ethics of the St. John movement. It might surprise the public to learn that so great were the demands upon members today that almost every available man was mustered for the Rugby games on Saturday and again for the hockey games on Sunday. Few if any were able to get even a single day home during the weekend.