CORRESPONDENCE R.S.A. ADMINISTRATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1932, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

R.S.A. ADMINISTRATION.

(To the Editor). Sir.—At the annual m-eeDng of the Returned Soldiers’ Association th e , secretary (Mr Paterson) .was asked : “Were the goods given as prizes at the Euchre Tournaments donated or were.: they bought, and if so, was the money evenly < distributed' among the returned soldier business men of the town P’A .jMf’ Pate|r- : son replied that the money-was evemy. distributed among the returned business ’ men. Now, -sir, this ;Stateihent was a deliberate untruth, as I far-'oxie, have; not received on e farthing’s, worth through Mr Paterson for prizes.;;supplied;, Thffbulk of the orders for prizes, as far as I know, has. been supplied by Mr Paterson and Mr Armstrong] Two days after the annual meeting, Mr Paterson called .at my shop and there he admitted to me that he ..himself d'd not supply all the drapery etc., but he had given a few orders to Millers Ltd. because Mr and Mrs McDougall had attended the tournaments. .. If he thought - fit' :©. in* a sense, reward Mr McDougall (who is. not a returned soldier) for attending the tournaments, why did he not reward all those other people who attended, paid their two shillings, ana had .their night’s amusement w*th the chance of winning a priz e just as Mr McDougall had done. Both his action* and his -argument are r'diculously puerile-. When questioned at the executive meeting recently -Mr Paterson denied having given any orders to business men other than returned soldiers. This statement was corroborated by Mr Armstrong, who is now President. vVell, ( eiii er ~ Paterson is not accountable for his own statements, or he does not tell the truth. ■ He is not satisfied with supplying all that he can from his own shop but. he must , add insult to injury by giving orders to outsiders in the same business as myself. If this is his i' way of helping returned men,, well, he is at least wanting in that noble quality of British justice. - i The balance sheet read at the annual J. meeting showed a profit of fifty odd , pound- from the euchre tournaments, but there .was no mention of the. cost entailed in the buying of prizes, etc. As far as returned solcfiersvare concerned they are entirely in the dark on that point. Orders for. euchr e prizes, as weil as orders through the Patriotic Society for - clothing .or groceries, have j in almost - every , instance -gone to Mr j Paterson, Mr Armstrong and McKay’s. , Now there is not one- person employed in McKay’s, or interested -in the business, . wiho is a returned soldier. Why should Mr Evans deliberately put orders out of my >way and give them to a man - whos e - -father’s estate was ‘ valued at £64,000? No doubt Mr Evans is only helping his relation in this case •who is employed in the -shop. I have received since I have been in business nearly four yearsrt'th& -•'-sum , . total of one small order for goods supplied through-.Mr D] - J. .'Evans, and even then the. appificant demanded the :right to buy the goods at my shop otherwise the order would have been made in favour of Paterson’s or McKay’s. I have always understood that the R.S.A. was formed to benefit thereturned men, irrespective of class or j ( kind. Why should the secretary have; full say. as to the procuring of goods I for prizes ? A much fairer way would I ( be for , the committee, not the .secretary j , alone, to decide what goods should be j bought, and that the money spent should be as far as possible e'venly distributed among all the returned men in business in the town.

About six years ago a bicycle was given as 'a prize for the winner of. £h e aggregate at the end of the euchre tournament -season. Now Mr Paterson procured that bicycle at a ihop that was not owned by a returned soldier and had no returned men employed in it. There were two returned soldier cycle dealers in th 6 town, .-but Mr Paterson, did not even ask them to give , a quote for the bicycle. One of these gentlemen was the lat 6 Mr -Harry Shandy who had been on the executive committee for yearly and was vice-president for several terms. Mr Shand naturally expected the order -from Mr Paterson foi* the cycle; and it' would have been a good lift to him, as he had.been in business then only a few months. What was Mr Paterson’s reason for meting out this treatment to a returned soldier who wa,s one of four, brothers who volunteered -in tfie earlier stages of the war—one being killed in. France? Was it to draw custom to (his own business?

Mr P&tereon has very often complainabout th e work as secretary being too much for him, and that it has been detrimental to his business, yet, at the. annual meeting, he did not take much persuasion to carry on for another year —perhaps because he was in receipt of ten guineas annually for the telephone 'whjoh is mostly used in connection with his own business. If Mr Pater-on found the secretaryship so irksome there would be no difficulty in passing the job over to an unemployed, married, returned soldier who would gladly and conscientiously do the work for the ten guineas. This would relievo Mr Paterson a,nd help considerably the. vorthy Digger. Now-, returned soldiers, are you satisfied to have as secretary % man who would deliberately take money out of the way of a returned eldier who ihas helped and befriended him in many ways and put it in the way of an outsider? If not, mak e yourselves financial members and see that 'ustco is done. Remember what you fought for, what thousands died for, -nd what was promised .you on your return. Have you got it? No. Perhaps because you did not.take enough interest in your Association—consequent, ly only a few have been reaping the enefits, and you who have been the very foundation of the Association quietly fake 'a back seat. . Are you going .to ■'o so in the future? Remember it-is