SIR ARTHUR PEARSON.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1922, Page 6

SIR ARTHUR PEARSON.

THE MEMORIAL FUND At a recent meeting of the New. Zealand Committee of the Sir Art.*.ar Pearson Memorial Fund to aid the civilian blind people of the Dominion, the chart- • amn. Mr. Clutha MaeKenzie. M.P., announced the present state of the fund in fj miTnhpr nf

These are not the complete returns as in. most cases active collecting for the fund is still in progress and in a number of cases only just started. The total amount in hand throughout the whole Dominion is approximately £lB.OOO/but this figure is rising daily at a rapid pace. Numerous country settlements have subscribed their quota or are busily doing so. and details of these will be published later. In many North Island centres arrangements are in hand for entering upon campaigns. Everywhere, the chairman said, the appeal had met with the most ready and willing response. The practical nature of the proposals, the immense need «■ ‘ the work, the direct result it would bring in added human happiness and in economic value to the State, and always the wonderful example in the blinded soldiers of the useful citizens which training and supervision csuld make of blind men. made a direct appeal to the people which was irresistible. He wished to express the deepest gratitude of the committee and himself for the magnificent work of numberless good people in every walk of life and for the generous contributions of many who could ill afford to give. Numbers of people in straightened circumstances, realising that to live a life of perpetual darkness in misery, poverty and enforced idleness, imprisoned by blindness, cut off from the beauties of the world, from literature, from independence and from the joy of the home and domestic life, was an infinitely worse state than their own circumstances, readily gave their I mite to the fund.

The publicity essential to the campaign was having a most useful result in the direct education of the people to the fact that the blind can be every bit as useful and even more so at many trades and occupations, than sighted men or women, and that they can take their place in the ordinary social life of the community, frequently becoming leading citizens in local public affairs. What the blind can do. they do wholeheartedly. What they want is a start Tn life —that is th? business of the Pearson Memorial Fund.

a number of centres- £ Christchurch -,-v -.‘ST..- 5000 Wellington , 2000 ...... 1500 Invercargill 1150 Timaru 900 Napier 700 Gore SOO Whangarei 500 Nelson ............... ...... 500 Ashburton ........... 516 Oamaru . ...-■....... ...... 383 Temuka 380 Grevmouth 350 Waimate .... . .. 350 Marlborough 300 Rotorua 277 Geraldine ............. ...... 206 Hoki t-ika ............. ...... 300 Hastings 145 x Thames 137 Otane 120 Marton 105 Levin .....y 104