WORKMATES' SYMPATHY

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3990, 29 August 1929, Page 3

WORKMATES' SYMPATHY

GIFT TO BLINDED MAN

Chtristchurch, August 28,

“I thank you fellow-railwaymen and the public on behalf of my wife, my family, and myself for the magnificent practical sympathy shown me in my misfortune,” declared Mr. George F. Kennedy at the Addington Railway Workshops yesterday in accepting the title deeds of his now freehold home in Jeffreys road, Bryndwr, and a cheque for £2OO. The mortgage on Mr. Kennedy's home was lifted and the cheque given by a fund to which the public and raihvaymen all over New Zealand contributed.

Mr. Kennedy, who has a wife and family of three, lost the sight of both his eyes last year after eight years’ service as a fitter at the Addington Workshops. One of his eyes was penetrated by a splinter from a steel pin; that was in .November of last year. Mr. Kennedy after having his eye removed, was back at work only five weeks before the bursting of a gauge glass on an engine severed the ball of his othereye, which also had to be removed. The Government granted him a compassionate allowance of £2OOO. His workmates and three men representing the public carried through an energetic canvass for funds. Helped by raihvaymen from all over New Zealand, the fund rose to £llO9 18/9. With this amount the committee in charge paid off llio £794 morrtgage on Mr. Kennedy's house, arranged for the putting in of a sewer, and will see that his house is painted and a fowlhonso erected. Even then there will he a credit, balance in the fund of £2OO.