"DOING ITS BIT"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 71, 17 December 1917, Page 6

"DOING ITS BIT"

/PATRIOTIC HASTINGS. Hastings is "doing its bit" right loyally in connection with matters patriotic Ono cannot help but miss the young men in its streets, its offices, and shops, and out in the country it is also evident that tho young men have packed up their troubles in their old kit bags, and have gone off to give Frits a ample of Hawke's Bay pluck and brawn. In regard to patmtic endeavour the bulk of the work centres in the Hastings branch of the Hawke s Bav War Relief Association, which meets regularly every week!to consider applications for relief on behalf of solS and their dependants. There art Iple funds in hand at present for aU immediate needs, but the policy of tho association is to study economy much as possible until ijk™™ the extent of its liabilities. It may be that he e are those who think that economy is over-consideretl in the disbursing TL funds in hand b«t the members of the association, all of whom aro wellknown, shrewd-headed men, consider that they are the trustees of tn° tl tu " S afwUs the past, and, t»t»«r earnest endeavour to safeguard funds so that those who are yet to sut fer deprivation through the war may not Avant. For all that, Mr. John Fraser (secretary of the Hastings branch) says that though every case's carefully considered, none of tho genu-inclj-deserving have ever been turned d °Tho Hastincs branch of the associationmeet, one, a week. The personnel of the committee is the Mayor (Mr. H. Lan Simson), W Hart, J Colcbur , Rev Mr. Brockehurst, and tho Kci. .Father Mahoney. It is represented on the central>executive at Napier by Mr. J. g M'Leod, whilst Dr. Boxer personally attends to all returned soldier cases in Hastings. At present the outgoing as far as Hastings is concerned amounts to about £17 a week. On the whole district the outgoing now exceeds the income, but special efforts always meet with a good response, and they will be forthcoming as necessity re it"wiil interest Hastings people to know that up to date they have subscribed £20,498 to the vanous fund undor the jurisdiction of the Hawke s Bay War Relief Association. There is a live branch of the Lady Liverpool Fund always hard at work in Hastings. It has an assembly place in a shop in town, whence all material omes. and to which all the work is returned. There is also a branch of the Rod Cross Society, which also runs a shop for tho sale of gift goods, netting an average' of £75 a week. A recent effort realised £400 for the Soldiers' Club in Hastings, and during last week an entertainment entitled "Our Reveille" has been Taking in money for the returned soldiers and their dependants. There is also a branch of the returned Soldiers' Employment Bureau, to assist tho discharged man back into civil life.