Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1896. The Kaitangata Relief Fund.

Manawatu Herald, 2 April 1896, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1896. The Kaitangata Relief Fund.

« From enquiries at the Public Trust Office, it appears that the income of this fund is insufficient b/ about i £300 to meet the annual payments '

to beneficiaries, and that the capital sum is being entrenched upon to make up the deficiency in income. It is clear therefore that no part of this Fund is available for the sufferers in the Brunnerton disaster. The capital of the Fund amounted to £9875 in October, 1892, when an Act was passed for the transfer of the Fund into the Public Trust Office as a nucleus of a permanent Coal- mining Accident Fund. The Act recites the reason for the transfer to be that "ftto of the widows and children," for whose relief the Fund was raised, " remain to receive relief from the Fund," and that " after providing for these, a large surplus remains year by year in the hands of the Trustees." Up to the time of the passing of the Act, the fund was administered by Trustees residing in Dunedin, consist.iug of the Mayor of Dunedin and four other gentlemen. According to the Act, their administration was so successful that after providing for the claimants upon the^-lftfd, " a large surplus " remained' yiar by year in the hands of the Trustees. Since October 1892 the Fund ha? been administered by th,o Public Trustee, and under his aduiinistration "the large surplus ". hag disappeared and a deficiency has arisen amounting for tha year ending 81st March, 1896, to about £300. The surplus on 31st March, 1893, was £515 8s Id ; on 31st March, 1891, £282 11s 2d ; and on 81st March, 1895, £85 153 7d. The number relieved wa9 17 in 1893, 18 in 1894. and 20 in 1895. The amount paid in relief for year ending March,'. 1894, was £693 8-?; and for the year ending March, 1895, was £784 Ga 61. The public will require to know (1) why the " few " to receive relief at the passing of the Act have I steadily increased, and (2) how it is that •' the large surplus " income , has under the administration of the I Public Trustee have been replaced by £800 deficiency. I The Act says the fund is " entirely unavailable for any purposes of need which may arise." Whatever sense these words were intended to convey at the time they were enacted, they arcs quito true in their literal Sf>nse. The widows and orphans of the Brunnerton catastrophe will find the fund " entirely unavailable " for them.