COUNTESS OF LIVERPOOL FUND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 70, 15 December 1917, Page 6

COUNTESS OF LIVERPOOL FUND

SOME OP ITS ACTIVITIES. The following letter has been icceive<l by the lion, secretary of the Wellington branch of tho above fund from tho Hon. A. M. Myers, Minister of Munitions :— "Re housewives and holdalls. Please accept my thanks for your letter, wherein you kindly offer to continue, until tho end of June next, to supply housewives and holdalls required for our soldiers. I have to advise you that the military authorities continue to regard your workmanship m high estimation, and I have pleasure m accepting your suggestion to carry on ou tho terms sot out in your letter. "Tho Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores.advises me his stocks are such that ho will bo able to fall in with vour suggested recreation from tfie middle of December to early _ in Fobruary next, provided he receives from your society'6ooo housewives between now and tho middle of December." In reference to this letter it may he explained that so many complaints were made to the fund in Wellington about tho housewives which were then being supplied to the soldiers in camp that in November, 1915, tho president and secretary of this fund interviewed the Defence Department and undertook, with the aid of tho other centres, to supply for six months the total number of housewives and holdalls required by tlio Department. Dunodin found itself unable to come into tho Khemo, so Wellington has supplied half, and Auckland and Christcliurch a quarter each of the total number. This contract has been renewed every six mouths, and is still in force, and as can be seen from the foregoing letter tho compact and well-finished article turned out by tho women is appreciated by tho Department. This work, of course, is only one of tho sitlo lines of the fund, which was the first Bociety formed in Wellington at the outbreak of war to supply comforts and extras to the New Zealand soldiers, and the members havo been doing this work ever since. Every month thousands of parcels are sent forward to tho men in the trenches, and up to last year the Countess of Liverpool Fund, working in conjunction with the country districts, had provided the full Wellington quota of Christmas gifts for tho men at the front. Since the beginning of the year, however, tho sportsmen's fund had materially assisted in tho work of sending regular monthly parcels and also with tho Christmas parcels, which had greatly relieved tho finances of tho Countess of Liverpool Fund. This year 16,000 pounds weight of plum puddings wero made by the workers of this fund and tho Citizens' League, which were included in the Christmas gifts. The fund also sends books and magazines and cases of comforts on board each troopship, and wlien it is found that balaclavas aro needed theso aro also supplied. Tho making of anti-vermin shirts has been another activity of this fund, theso having been found to bo much appreciated.

The large amount of work being done hy the Countess of Liverpool Committee Tii Wellington could not go on were it not for the loyal support and co-oper-ation of tho many country branches conneoted with it. Many supply parcels to the men at the front, others send money to tho Wellington committee for their quota, nnd in whatever direction an appeal has been made by tho central body in Wellington the country districts have responded' generously and quickly, so that a large part of the success of the society's work has been due to this support and co-operation, i