REQUESTS FOR HELP

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1928, Page 1

REQUESTS FOR HELP

‘ MR G. S. READE INUNDATED. AUCKLAND, July 22. Air G. S. Reade, of Auckland, through whose generosity a new naval school costing £l,ooo,ooo'is to be built in England, has written the following letter to the “ Herald,” and says he will feel obliged if other editors throughout New Zealand will give publicity to it: — “In connexion with the Greenwich Naval School, a cabled notice of which was published in your issue of July 17th, may I appeal to you in self-de-fence to insert the following intimation —Since this notice appeared I have been inundated with applications from all parts of New Zealand for assistance of one kind and another from impecunious individuals advancing impossible claims for aid or relief, brokers offering alluring mediums of investment, also gentlemen bringing to my notice some very worthy causes for monetary assistance. For these latter I desire to express my heartfelt sym pathy, and regret that it is impossible for me to aid tlie causes they have so much at heart. Doubtless, also, there are genuine cases for aid among the humbler and distressed applicants, and this brings me to my point, and appeal to the common sense of all would-be applicants. It is an axiom that one cannot eat one’s cake and possess it too. Having given all my substance on the bequest property, I have nothing moro to give. lam like the man in the street who has to live within his income and seo that lie does not exceed it. This is no new experience to me.

“ Ever since tho bequest was promised, following tlie gift of property some nine years since, I have considered myself a trustee of the trust created on behalf of the bequest and exercised thrift, limiting my annual expenditure to £IOOO all in excess of which I considered tho property of the trust. I mention this in explanation of how it is I am not in a position to help all and sundry who write for assistance without knowledge of the circumstances.

“ At long last a cablegram lias come to band, only this morning (Saturday) from Air A. AV. Smallwood, C.8.E., Director of Greenwich, and a member of the Admiralty Board, stating that a contract for the school lias been signed.”