PATRIOTIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Chronicle (Levin), 30 March 1946, Page 3

PATRIOTIC ACHIEVEMENTS

shannon district's effort ; In a letter to the sub-committees , of the Shannon and district Patri- ; otic Committ'ees, the secretary (Mr. ■ J. D. Campbell) stated that the , work done by the district committees was really a wonderful achieve- i ment. Mr. Campbell went on to ■ say: "When we realise that we had 1 no newspaper in the district to boost anything along it shows great credit must be given to the committees who were able to get the public interested in order to have been able to collect the large sum of money that has been raised. My greatest surprise was when I received from Mfs. Bovis a list of articles made by the women of Shannon, Opiki and Tokomaru districts. This was done by a gallant band of siient workers. "In April, 1940, when the first patriotic meeting was- called, the late Mr. A. E. Hyde h.eing elected chairman, in trying to form a committee in the district it was hard to create interest,, but Mr. Hyde . -was never undaunted, and believed that a small committee wa's all that was necessary. In September, 1940, at a meeting to decide how £2500 could be raised, the sum menti'oned was taken lightly. We received all sorts 'expert' advice. I'm afraid • we might have all-finished up. in jail had we taken some of this advice. However, in the end £2987 14s 9d was raised. "Our meetings were few and pleasant, so much so that in all our meetings the subjects were fully discussed and no amendments were ever recorded. As secretary . and treasurer for the district it has been a great pleasure to work with such a wonderful executive. I was more or less left with a free hand to carry out the work, and only called a meeting when it was necessary. True we have come in for criticism, but when raising money from the , public we were 'given every support from the people of Shannon and

district, and our record is indeed a remarkable achievement.'.' A full report of the money raised and of the articles made by the women was published !n "The Chronicle" on Mareh 14. • v -