SIR ARTHUR PEARSON MEMORIAL FUND.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 April 1922, Page 4

SIR ARTHUR PEARSON MEMORIAL FUND.

(To the Editor.)

Sir.—ln launching the appeal throughout New Zealand for the establishment of a Memorial to the name of Sir Arthur Pearson, Part., the Commiteo of the Fund are carrying out the earnest wishes of Lady Pearson and Sir Neville Pearson in taking up Now Zealand’s part in the effort which is being ma.de throughout the English-speaking world. So far as New Zealand is concerned the Fund is to be an endowment for the extension of the training and supervision of the blind people of the Dominion, between live and six hundred in number, in other words it is hoped by this Memorial Fund to do for the blind of Britain and for the blinded soldiers of the Empire. They can he made normal happy citizens, fully occupied at a useful trade, with good homes and families of their own. There is no other way in which the gifts of a .generous public can bring about a more direct result measured in terms of human happiness and human ■ good, and it is a charity which is near j home. j

Words have never been adequate in which to express the gratitude of Now Zealand’s blinded sol diet's to Sir Arthur Pearson, and they feel that they caiinot honour his memory in better fashion than by bringing within reach of the civilian blind that which Sir Arthur gave them, and they will take a leading part in this appeal. '•Much has been done for the disabled soldiers by the unforgetting public, and they feel that they can now do something in return. The Jubilee Institute for the blind, which has always been handicapped by lack of money and has thereby been prevented from keeping in line with the modem institutions of the Old World is fully 'aware of its limitations, and is joining whole-heartedly in this appeal. The Memorial Fund, in order that there may he no overlapping, js . to be handed over to its Trustees in due course, subject to certain specifications, for their administration. The Fund will bear a Government subsidy of 24s in the £ so that every half-a-orown given by the public becomes fis 6d for the benefit of the blind, §

Four fine able men in the prime of life have recently lost their sight—one, a railway employee w.itb a wife and nine children, the eldest fourteen

years old; another, a. ’policeman with wife and two children; the third, a miner on .the West ; Coast; and the fourth, it young returned soldier with three years service behind him. The fact that he lost his sight ih a blasting accident in civilian employment two years after his return disqualifies him from receiving assistance from the funds ordinarily established to help returned men. There are only some of the cases which are occurring continually, - three of them blasting accidents, the other the result of influenza and it is these arid many others whom the Fund is designed to assist. We want to teach them to live again, to •learn new employments and to he happy Useful citizens. Tounds, 1 shillings or pence--all will, help. The committee will be deeply grateful if those who feel that they can' help in any way will co-operate with the Mayor in raising the local contribution. Large or small, every contribution will bring new jov and new usefulness into the lives of those, who, through no fault of their own, have not the same blessings of this i world as most of us. £45,000 is the amount for which we appeal) Yours truly, CLOTH A MACKENZIE, ] ’Chairman.