POPPIES BRING £l,800

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 956, 26 April 1930, Page 1

POPPIES BRING £l,Boo

THURSDAY'S STREET APPEAL SEVEN RETURNS TO COME Two hundred willing workers at 30 depots and stalls in the City and Suburbs were kept busy all day on Thursday when the annual Poppy Day appeal was made. This morning the Returned Soldiers’ Association had received £l,BlO, and there are returns yet to come from seven outlying depots. Donations will bring the total up still further to little short of last year’s receipts, £2,002. Few of the 40,000 artificial poppies ordered by the Returned Soldiers’ Association from the factory in London operated by disabled ex-servicemen of the British Legion, remained unsold by Thursday evening. In Devonport alone 1,000 had been distributed before midday, and by evening the total had passed the 1,600 mark. Sales, which were under the direction of the Mayoress, Mrs. E. Aldridge, resulted in £Bl 10s being raised. Open-handed generosity and petty r nness were both apparent when the collectors’ boxes were opened in the City, but the former was by far the most evident. A cheque for £SO had been dropped in by some -wellwisher, and half-crowns and notes were by no means unknown. In one box, howeveh, was found a half-penny neatly covered with silver paper. One man was seen in the City wearing a posy of about a dozen poppies. The proceeds of the appeal will be used chiefly in relieving distress among ex-soldiers and their dependants, for which purpose 75 per cent, of the total has been allocated. The Returned Soldiers’ Association will take 15 per cent, and the Veterans’ Home the remaining 10 per cent. The R.S.A. will also receive the total proceeds from the sale of the “Anzac Anthem,” which was written by Mr. J. Youlin Birch and set to music by the city organist, Mr. J. Maughan Barnett.

In the Papatoetoe and Otahuhu dis tricts a record amount was raised, the total being £l3B 9s 9d. The receipts at Birkenhead were slightly lower than last year, being £36 13s BJd. The result is considered a satisfactory in view of the response to the recent Obstetrical appeal.

CHRISTCHURCH RECORD

MORE THAN £1,550 RECEIVED Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. The sale of poppies yesterday realised £1,550. It is estimated that £IOO is still to come. Last year’s total was £1,067, which was then a record.