DEBT TO BRITISH SEAMEN FUND

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 24 November 1927, Page 3

DEBT TO BRITISH SEAMEN FUND

SATISFACTORY STATE OF AFFAIRS. Wellington, November 24. The seventh annual meeting of the New Zealand Shcepfarmers’ Acknowledgment of Debt to Briish Seamen Fund was held to-day, the chairman, the Hon. E. Newman. M.L.C.. presiding. The annual report disclosed a most satisfactory state of affairs. Con—, sideration was given to 67 applications for financial assistance, and grants amounting to £1043 10s 2d were authorised to disabled sailors and dependants of sailors who had died as a result of injuries received during the war. During the same period the London Advisory Committee considered 104 applications, making grants amounting to £873 2s 4d. Total cash grants to date amount to £54,192 Is lid. The trustees had now brought out some 400 boys and girls, 314 of whom were now settled upon farms in the Dominion. The chairman said the fund had had to face heavy taxation. The amount actually subscribed was £240,0000. Out of this, between £53,000 and £60,000 had been expended in assisting relatives of seamen killed or incapacitated bv the war. The fund had had to pay land tax amounting to £l7OO. and income tax amounting to £3500. None of the boys had drifted to the cities. He urged the Government to follow some such scheme in bringing out immigrants. It was stated that the amount actually saved in cash bv boys and girls of Flock House amounted to £7OO, and in addition raanv boys had invested in substantial life insurance policies, and added to this a sum of nearly £3OOO stands to the credit of both bovs and girls as accrued pension monev.