CLEVER IMPOSTERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5488, 16 October 1929, Page 2

CLEVER IMPOSTERS.

WARNING TO CITIZENS. INDISCRIMINATE GIVING. A warning to Wellington citizens against giving assistance indiscriminately in cases where they are personally approached and asked for relief is issued by the Red Cross Unemployment Relief Committee, says the Dominion. The attention of the committee has been drawn to a practice of some persons calling on families in the suburbs. These people, it is stated, first ascertain who the old families of the district are ; they then approach the house and profess that their father or mother had known or worked for the old people many years ago. One man in particular stated by way of appealing to those whom he addressed that his mother was a resident in Hawke’s Bay, in poor circumstances, and was at death’s door, and he needed the train fare to proceed immediately to her bedside. Not a few have had their sympathies played upon in this way and have given the applicant as much as £l. He called at the home of a subscriber to the Red Cross ‘Society, who immediately got into touch with the secretary and was informed that if the facts of the case were correct the society would certainly help the man to reach his mother. The subscriber gave»the society’s address to the man, who promised to proceed to it without delay and interview the secretary. He has not turned up, but it is learned that he obtained assistance from three residents in the locality on the same pretext. ; The committee feels that the folly of indiscriminately giving to charity should be realised. It is wiser and more economical to make a contribution to an organisation which can expeditiously and efficiently investigate cases brought under its notice. To each of its subscribers of £1 Is and upwards the Red Cross Society furnished a book of relief forms, so that the subscriber is absolved frbm any responsibilities for relief by tearing out one of the forms and presenting it to the applicant for presentation to the society, which makes the necessary inquiries and extends relief.