STREET COLLECTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1916, Page 5

STREET COLLECTIONS.

' COMPLAINTS AS TO THEIR GENUINENESS. A question ihat has been disturbing the. minds of many townspeople during the past few weeks was threshed out in some detail at last night's meeting of" the New Plymouth Patriotic Committee, when Mr. James Clarke brought under the notice of those present the method of street collections, ostensibly for patriotic purposes, now in vogue. He <lid not, lie said, cast any reflection upon the genuine workers, and upon those organisations which everyone knew were collecting for their specific o'bjeets. But there was a lot of peripatetic collecting. He knew of several instances, brought under his notice, and had also had personal expedience of being "tapped" for money whet", he was convinced that anything he might have pi-offered would not be used for the purpose for which it was requested. Something should be done in the matter, which he thought the : Soclety should take steps .to deal with. Mr. Burgess considered that the question was one for the police to deal with more than the committee. As -Mayor, lie had power under the regulations to issue permits for street collections for patriotic purposes, but he had not many applications, 'flic trouble was that there were too many. Tho various organisations were not at fault; it was ,tlie "free lances" that were causing the trouble. There wa- no doubt that the public were beginning to look askance at many of the requests now being made, and the house-to-house collections 'were also a source of aimoyance and suspicion unless ■ the 'bona fides of the collector were satisfactory to t'he person called upon. The Women's Patriotic Committee ,and the Ked .Cross Mart had obviated the difficulty by adopting distinguishing badlges, and there was no diflicnlty 'with 'them; nor was there with Mr. Hughes', cigar stall. He (Mr. Burgess) thought the police should interest themselves a little more in the matter. If a person seen could not produce the proper permit he or she could be proceeded against, and a £lO or £2O fine would soon Jeter the culprit from canvassing and collecting without authority. The Act was an elastic one, but its provisions were not such that anyone could override them as they liked. Various proposals to deal with what the Committee as a whole recognised is becoming a menace to genuine patriotic collections were suggested, and tile subject was debated for a long time, it being finally agreed that if publicity be given to the fact that no person can collect without an official permit, and without satisfying the authorities of the bona fides of the collector, the threatiened evil might be averted) >