HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5092, 23 February 1927, Page 2

HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

OTAGO PATRIOTIC FUNDS.

POSITION AT DUNEDIN.

At a meeting <>£ the Otago Patriotic Association yesterday the chairman, Mr J. J. Clark, said : “We have had 197 applications during the past quarter, and that is ample evidence of the necessity of the association carrying on its work. A large number of applications for assistance are due to unemployment. A remarkable thing about those applications is that, aii overwhelming proportion come from our men located in tiie North Island. Locally there was nothing abnormal.’’ Mr Clark said the position showed two things. One was that soldiers had made absolutely good as far as their employment was concerned, and the other was that good consideration was being shown to these men oy their employers. Many of the men, owing to war disabilities, were nor up to the maximum of efficiency, and there was a tendency when times were quiet for some of the men not t . be retained, but he was very glad to say that such did not obtain in Dunedin. The committee had I»ad some very distressing cases to deal with, but there was a .strong determination on the part of soldiers t ! work and not to apply for. assistance unless they* could not possibly do without iL At Christmas time the committee had been able to expend £lOO in brightening the lives of men, women, and children who were suffering as the result of the war. This was made possible through a legacy in a will for the assistance of soldiers and their dependants.