Liberal Donations By Businessmen To War Memorial

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 1, 27 September 1950, Page 5

Liberal Donations By Businessmen To War Memorial

The following letter was read to the assembled Matatua tribes-people last Saturday, by the president of the Whakatane Rotary Club. Mr C. Kingsley-Smith:— On behalf of the Whakatane businessmen and other well-wishers I have much pleasure in handing t.o you today a cheque for £224 7s Bd, which includes a cheque for £25 from the Whakatane R.S.A. earmarked for the Ngarimu Scholarship fund. This sum has been sponored by the Rotary Club at Whakatane, and with it goes the goodwill and fellowship which this great movement endeavours to cultivate at every opportunity.

The gesture, we hope will serve to illustrate to you the deep Pakeba interest in your celebrations, and I have to state that already we have acknowledged donations which have been handed direct to your committee which total £sl 13s. Thus you will see that the Pakeha goodwill effort on your behalf brings the total sum up to £274 8s Gd. The money which we have raised, will with your sanction be devoted towards the cost of the fine Memorial which you have erected to the undying memory of the 500 Matatua warriors who perished in. the Boer War. and iin World Wars I and 11, To them our hearts go our in gratitude, and to you our hearts go out in sympathy and understanding in your loss. May your great Sexcentennial be a grand success and may your children grow to realise more and more the imperishable deeds of your ancestors who crossed the great s-?a of Kiwa, under the leadership of the renowned navigator, Toroa. To you all I give greeting on this great day of co-memoration hoping that this gesture will bring our two races closer and closer together in moulding the destiny of this wellloved land of qurs, as one united people.