GEORGE V. MEMORIAL FUND

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 57, 23 March 1937, Page 7

GEORGE V. MEMORIAL FUND

Establishment of Health Camps

MR. SAVAGE'S APPEAL

The -New Zealand Grovernment has opened the King George Y. Memorial I'und with a grant of £25,000 and now appeals to the people of the Dominion to eupplement this amount so that the fund may xeaeh thq total of £100,000, whieh will be devoted to the establishment of two permanent children 's health eamps each in the North and South Islands to qommemorate the life and reign of the late. King George Y« The Government will subsidise. pound for pound all money pubscribed after the fund has reached a tdtnl °f £50,0QQt The Prime Miuister, the Rt. Hpn. M. J. Savage, says, in asking for public support of the fund: "I make this appeql to the people, no.t in their deep grief of a year ago, but in thejf cairn recollection to-day of all that King George V. was and of a!i that his example meant to the welfaTe of his people and the peace of the world. Not in brass or stone or marble, but yet in the creation of this tangible memor|al of children 's health camps, a form be liimself would have preferred, will the name of George V. be an ©ver-livlng memory to the people of this far-flung outpost of the British Comnaonwealtb of Nations which he served, literally unto death. * ' Just before Christmas," Mr Savage adds, "I announced that the Government, haying given very full consideration to the question of a Dominion Hemorial to King George, had deeided to inaugurate a natiopal fund for the permanent establishment in New Zealand of children 's health camps. Such an object would, the Government felt, be more in keeping with the syim i pathetic eoncern always felt by His late Majesty for the health and recreation and the welfara generally of his peqples throughout the British Commonwealfch of Nations than any, other of the numerous projectg which Uad received consideration. The scheme for health camps had the additional merit that, while widely natiqnal in character, its benelits would not be conlined to any one epot in Nqw Zealand. The basis of it, as now vis« ualised, will be at least two permanent camps in eaeh island as eentres of Ihe whole movement. ■ '1 now make an appeal to all the people of New Zealand that between j now and June 3 next — His late Majpstv's birthday — they will supplement, preferably ,by direct giving, the sum nf £25,000 with which, I have great pleasure in announcing, the Government opens the New Zealand King Geprge V. National Memori&l Eund. That sum is an earnest both of the Government 's recognition. of our national duty fittiugly to commemorate the noble life and notabl© reign. o± George V. and pf its regard fqr the health camp moyeraenP as a great national service. In addition to thai initial contributipn of £25,000 the Government will subsidise pound for pound all moqeys subscribed by the people of ( New Zealand after the fund (inclusive of that £25,000) has reached a total of £50,000. The Government sinceroly trusts that the fund will reach at least y total of £100,000, the minimum amount necessary to ensure the proper establishment of two permanent camps in each island, "The Dominion Health Camps Adyiaory Board will administer the King George V. National Memorial Eund. The moneys will not be paid into the Consolidated Fund, but will be formally yepted in trustees of whom the Minister of Health will be one. "It is most fitting that this my appeal shoujd be on as national a basis as the object. of the King George V. Memorial Fund and the respon&o which I know the people of New Zealand will mako, Tq that end I iuvited my immediate predecessor in ofiice, tho Rt. Hon. W. G. Forbes, aud the present Leader of the Opposption, the Hon. Adam Hamilton, to associate themselves with me in thjs appeal and both have gladly agreed to support the proposal."