“HEAVY INROADS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 386, 21 June 1928, Page 15

“HEAVY INROADS”

PATRIOTIC FUNDS EXECUTIVE’S REPORT •'The past year has been an ex- | tremely hard one and the appeals for assistance have consequently been numerous, resulting in heavy inroads in the funds,” states the report of the executive of the Auckland Provincial Patriotic and War Relief Association to the 13th annual meeting to-day. The year opened with a credit, balance of £142,202 3s 4d, interest on in- j vestments amounted to £6.836 10s sd, and donations t.o £2O 5s lOd. A sum of £ 700 was received from the National War Funds Council to be expended on the relief of returned soldiers. This made a total of £149,758 19s 7d. Disbursments on all accounts amounted to £I6,GS6 18s 3d. of which the principal items were:—Auckland Claims Board, £7,436 7s 7d; provincial branches, £757 14s; permanently disabled soldiers board, £2.893 1« 8d; and local relief “B” fund, £3,183 9s. The balance in hand at the end of the period was £133,072, of which £126,620 10s lOd was at the credit of the "A” fund, and £6,451 11s 4d at the credit of the “B” fund. CLAIMS BOARD The Claims Board, dealing with applications for assistance from sick or wounded soldiers and dependents in Auckland, had held 100 sittings and considered 4,023 applications. With so many able-bodied men out of work, men with slight disabilities had found themselves unemployable. The “B” fund had been of very real use in relieving distress in the city among returned soldiers. The sum of £1,267 16s lOd was paid to the council as the association’s share of the wages expended on various works. The Permanently Disabled Soldiers’ Board had assisted 526 soldiers to the extent of £106,406 3s 9d since the inception of the scheme in 1919. A grant of £250 had been made toward the erection of the new tuberculosis shelters in the Domain. There were now 20 men in the Evelyn Firth Home and 11 in the T.B. shelters. In the veterans’ home there were 22 inmates. An automatic fire alarm system had been installed at the home. The Returned Soldiers’ Club had been helped with a subsidy of £l3O.