STREET DAY APPEALS

Chronicle (Levin), 16 December 1947, Page 4

STREET DAY APPEALS

council to reduce number of permits The time had now arrived when the council should lay down a generai policy in regard to street day^, said the Mayor, Mr. H. B. Burdekin, at last night's meeting of the Levin Borough Council. He was commenting on a letter from the Combined Seamen's Institute Committee in which the council was asked to give its permission to the holding of a street appeal on a suitable date. Cr. D. J. Sweetzer said that at the recent convention of theJunior Chamber of „ Commerce .this subject had been raised and a remit, whibh had subsequently been discarded, had been put forward to the eft'ect that one general street day a year should be hel'd and each deserving organisation should be allocated a proportion of the amount collected. "If such a scheme was adopted here it would please every shopkeeper," he added. Commenting, Mr. Burdekin said that to start with, there were three days that it would be hard to cut out, namely, Poppy Day, Rose Day and the Christmas cheer collection 1 for the hospital patients. These days had been established for years. He suggested that a roster should be drawn up and a limit placed on the number of days set aside for appeal purposes. At present the council allowed for one a month. Wellington adopted a roster system and those who did not have a day this year would have one* the next. He understood that the Wellington City Council had a waiting list of 18. Cr. Sweetzer moved that the three days mentioned by the Mayor stand, with the addition of six more, making1 a total of nine. Would it be possible to confine . street eollectors' activities to the moving public, asked Cr. D. J. Gardiner. The business people should be left out as they had to suffer a constant drain. '

Cr. A. J. ti. Aiien: it maKes no difference: the business people are caught as soon as they step out into the street. We business people feel that it is beiter to pay up and get it over. Cr. R. A. Frederikson said he thought that local organisations should have first claim on street days rather than Chose outside the town. He still favoured a roster system, but admitted that it would be hard for the council to decide on priority, said Mr. Burdekin. The various organisations should be instructe'd to make their applications in time for consideration by the council at the January meeting so that days could be allocated to them at the beginning of the year. Provision could perhaps be made for special appeals. After further discussion, Cr. Sweetzer said he was agreeable to reducing the number he had suggested- to five, whith plus the three other ' days would bring the total to eight. ' This was aOcordingly passed as a motion, it being also agreed that the organisations be urged to place their applications for a street day in time for consideration at the January meeting.