UPPER HUTT EXPLOSION RELIEF FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2380, 9 February 1915, Page 3

UPPER HUTT EXPLOSION RELIEF FUNDS

ALLOCATION OF THE MONEY. Shortly after the Upper Hutt explosion, in which sovoral lives were lost, the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. J. P. Luke) opened a relief fund and invited public subscriptions. The money collected totalled £1495 14s. 3d. The expenditure up to January 19 was £319 ss. 6d., so that a balance of £1176 9s. 9d. was left. Tho Mayor of Wellington (Mr. J. P. Luke), the Mayor of Miramar (Mr. F. Townsend), and Mr. P. J. O'Piegan met as a committee to decide what to do with the balance. The committee came to the conclusion that it should hand the money to the Public Trustee, with recommendations as to the dispereal of the amount.' The position now is that one. of the bereaved women, who is left with four children, ranging in ags from seven to infancy, is to receive £85 per year. AT woman with a boy of 14 years will receive £52 per year. Another widow, who has two children partially dependent on her, and two wholly , dependent, is to receive £62 per year. In another case, where the husband was invalided and there axe fivo dependent children, £100 per year haa been allocated. "The fund will be extinguished in about five years," the Mayor says, "but by that time some of the children will be in a position to assist."