DEMANDS DECLINING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1938, Page 8

DEMANDS DECLINING

R.S.A. FUNDS FOR RELIEF OF DISTRESS PROPOSALS BY CONTROLLING BOARD (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The demand on its funds for the relief of distress through unemployment wasi decreasing, stated the annual report of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, adopted at the conference of the Dominion council in Wellington yesterday. The report stated that in August, 1937, following representations by the associations, the N.Z.E.F. Canteen and Regimental Funds Board decided to discontinue the unemployment grants for the relief of fit men, owing to the general facilities offering for the absorption of such men in employment. The sum of £120,185 was expended since 1927.

The board then decided to make funds available to the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association at the rate of £lOOO a month for six months from August 1, 1937, as a “Disability (Benevolent) Grant” for the relief of men who, owing to physical disabilities, were fit only for light intermittent work or were unfit for any work. At the end of the six months the board expressed the hope that the association’s further applications would be limited to such amounts as represented the interest earned by the fund, which is now £6OOO per annum. “It will, therefore, be necessary,” stated the report, “for the council to discuss this question in order to arrive at a decision for presentation to the board prior to its meeting in August, 1938. “The committee would mention that many of the president’s reports upon the expenditure of the monthly allocations of canteen funds disclose that there are credit balances in hand. This would appear to indicate that there is a decided improvement in employment, and consequently the necessity for the Disability (Benevolent) Grant does not seem to be quite so great as it was. “The canteen fund at February 1, 1938, amounted to £150,270 19s lOd, which is a decrease of £7107 2s 7d for the year and £946 Ils 9d more than the year’s interest. The funds of the National War Funds Council stood at £79,147 16s 2d at March 31, 1938, a decrease over the year of £8450 13s Id. “With such decrease each year, at the present rate of expenditure there will be little left for conservation or for relief of necessity in even 10 years’ time.”