County Patriotic Fund

Levin Daily Chronicle, 20 September 1917, Page 3

County Patriotic Fund

MAYOR EXPLAINS AND APPEALS In the course of his remarks at the send-off to tho boyis going to tho front, the Mayo'r of Levin (oil Tuesday evening) niado some timely [references to tlvo iHorowhenua County {Patriotic Fund and the objects aimed at by the County Patriotic Association. Mr. Blonkhorn said perhaps tho name of the a.ssooiaition was more familiar than its objects. At tho beginning of the war every province in New Zealand set o<ut to raiso funds and Qargo sums were raked. Wellington was not behindhand, and had readied a total of between £70,000 and £80,000. This had been placed | in tho keeping of the Wellington ;AVar llMief So'ciioty, whixjh Iliad been dAttributing relief, wherever required, in a imost liberal and wiso manner. Levin had been indebted to this .fund for many sums of money. iMost of tho money in this fund wan raised in tho first y©ar of the war and since then comparatively little had been added; but New Zealand had done very well, folr with her population of a million she had raised .abmijt two and a half million pounds sterling. A few enthusiast s , said Mr. Blenkhorn, thought that the Hlorowlvenua County should have its own fund, and after ooinsiiderab])© delay and diisoouiflaiges ment they were a.t last in tho proud position, of haiving a- society known as th|d Horowhemia County Patriotic Association (applause). Its funds ait present stood at £1641, and amounts promised by . different contributing bodios would bring the total up to £3000. "Wo have still ia long way to go, and our ambitions are by no means yet realised," added the mayor. "The population of the o ■ansy i.; between 7000 and 8000 according to the last census, and if ©very man, wi.iuan and child contributed at the rate of a pound or two pounds per lifiad we should then have a very consideiable sum to disbuirse for very necessary relief."

"What 'are we doing with the monoy that is given to the fund? It is equally controlled by all the contributing bodies. /Levin has no move fay than Shannon or Otaki. AVe hjpe '1' wo all pull together wo will rea;h a total of between £40,000 and £50,000." (Mir. iDlenkhorn saidi that at the present time tlife policy of the association was to lock the moiey up —for a very sound reason. In tho first place, the county had contributed about £7000 to tno Wellington fund, and they considered they had a claim oti that fund fvr immediate requirements. If tln-y started administering relief they tvoulo be living from hand to moi'th, but if tlie Wellington fund continued to disburse for immediate mcnts the county would soon be .n tli "• happy position of having a f-üb-st.ii tin! fund of ite own. Further, when the lads came iback we would have nothing to meet tliem with unless we looked after our funds. Mr. Blenkhorn, in conclusion, said it was due from the public that they should give their li,enirtkx=t support for (the sake of the boys who were at the war.