SUB-ASSOCIATIONS' CONFERENCE

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 7, 30 April 1920, Page 10

SUB-ASSOCIATIONS' CONFERENCE

HELD IN THE SOLDIERS' CLUB ON SATURDAY, APRIL 24th., 1920. The following gentlemen were present : Mr D. M. Rae, (chair) ; Tuatapere, Messrs FcFeely and Cunningham ; Bluff, Messrs Brooks and McGorlick; Edendale, Messrs MeRae and Oanstoun ; Orepuki, Mr V. C. Crowther ; Fortrose, Mr A. J. Millard ; Executive, W. A. Sutton and secretary. President The necd has been felt ior quite a while that a meeting be held, as the matter of rebate to oountry associations is evidently not meeting with general satisfaction, and in view of the fact that country representatives more or less take a strong attitude in the matter we feel that a great deal of good could be done if the country associations and the town association discuss the whole matter so that in the first place the country rnembers might take back to their respective associations the views of headquarters pa the matter, at the &am.e time we raitght be able to do better to our local associations if we heard the views of these country members, and I really hope that you will take tliis opportunity of expressing openly your views on the matter oi rebate. I shall now ask our secretary to explain the matter first, and then we shall procecd to hear the views of tne country members. Secretary The position in regard to the rebate is briefly as follows. I think it would he advisable to start from the beginning, wlren country sub-cominittees were first formed. As you are all aware early in the year our membership had increased to such a great extent that it was decided that something should be done, and witli that in view representatives from this Association wcnt to Tuatapere and Lumsden and formed sub-commitiees. Cert-ainly there was nothing definite laid down. Our main object was really to get the tliing started, and then if neces- j sary to try and get it thrashed out, and | see what decision could be arrived at in . regard to rebate, etc. It was then sug- | gested that we forrn country sub-commit- j teos and that the association rebate Ls per cent. Shortly after that, Conference decided that a new scherne of organisation would he brought into being which made provision for the forming of sub-associa-tions. ri here was no restriction placed on the membership of these sub-associa- j tions, and no restrictions whatever as tar j as Conference was concerned. The Dis- j irict Organiser was appointed rhortly j afterwards, and as you know he came | to Southland and formed sub-as&ociations. ; At a meeting held in Dunedin early in j the year the District Council which was j uewly set up, went into the question of sub-associations, and the question of finance was discussed, and was decided at that meeting. that they make a rebate of 4s per member to sub-associations. I was at, that meeting and, frankly, gentlemen, ! opposed it, because I considered that the associations could not without strainiag their finances do the thing conscientiously. I do not think that the other associations had studied the question out, in fact I would go so far as to say I am sure they had not, because at a council pieeting which was held in Dunedin last month the question was brought up again, .and it was decided to delete the whole clause dealirig with finance and to let the amount of rebate be decided mutually between the parent-association and the subassociation concerned. Now this Association is perhaps the association that is going to be hardest hit in the matter ; for we liave a comparatively small townmembership and 683 financial members belonging to sub-associations, a total of as I said last niglit, of 1716. Out of these 1716 there are a certain number who have joined up during last month, and owing to the rush of work have not been posted, but we can say roughly that we have 650 country members and 900 town members. Now included in these ttiwn members are a great number of men who in all probability as time goes on will themselves form subassociations. As a matter of fact some of thern are asking now that sub-associa-tions be formed. This will cut into the town membership to a considerahle extent, and it is not leaving the parent-associa-tion a. great amount of finance to carry on witli. For every financial member we pay 23 capitation to headquarters, and 2s to district which leaves 6s. That 6s per member has to supply everythiag in eonnection with the Association, and as you can see from your gtatement of receipts and expenditure, our expenditures are fairly heavy. I have been doing my besh to keep them down as low as possible, but they still have mounted up. If a rebate of 4s is made to each subassociation, it is going to keep down the finances very considerably, and moreover

j how are we going to adjust the fmances ; of the parent-association? I may also ask, how are wc going to apportion the work between sub-associations and ihe parent-association. It appears to me and to orr ort-going execalivo that as practically all Ihe work is done from Invercargill, it is absolutely necessary that a pejmanent staff t-o he employed. Now, if this permanent staff is going to be employed and the sub-associationg aro going to get their 4s per member, it is evident to be able to meet the expense at headquarters, there must he some arrangement arrived at, whereby headquarters would be able to make a scale of charges for ; work done for sub-associations. Our reI tifing president, said, and our new presi- | dent says, that we want to meet sub-as- ; sociations. We must have unity, and | God help the soidier if we do not have | it. If we are to get any settlement we j must keep together. j We want you to go back to your subj associations with expressed opinions, we ! want the thing gone into rationally, and gone into thoroughly. We are anxious to get it decided-, and we are anxious for j sub-associations to ask questions. We | must remember that the difficult part is j going to be the agreement about the rebate of subsci'iptions and we have to remember that the expense bas to be born by the parent-association. President : — Mr Graham has pointcd out the position and it necessary to bear • n mind that all expense-s are borne by the parent-association, that if a country association decides to have a meeting that incurs any expense, it is met by this Association. It is absolutely necessary to have a staff in order to cope with the work suecessfully. We must have a good staff if our oountry sub-associations ara going to derive any great benefit from the Association. I am quite sure that we shall see if 4s rebate is fixed that we must curta.il more or less the effective possibilitles of this Association. We want to hear all your views on t-his matter, and I think if we express our views, we will be able to come to some decision. Mr I. C. McRae : — - If in the event of the amout of rebates being less than 4s will the parent-association mako up any deficiency in the country sub-association's expenditure ? Mr Graham : — As far as that goes it is a question that has not been thought of to any great extent. I take it that if a rebate is fixed upon, and we will say for argument, — please don't think 1 am trying to force it — you decidc on 2s, and that at the end of the year the sub-as-sociation fmd that this has not been eriough, and that they have incurred legitimate exp&nses above this, I think that any surplus of expenditure would be met by the association, but -this is a question that has not been thoroughly thrashed out. Mr McFeely : — I would like to say that the Tuatapere branch have brought this matter up repeatedly, w.e are sick of it and will be glad when it is finally settled. The different diseussions we have had on the matter have been considerabL divided. Members in our branch regard Is 6d rebate as being too low. At a meeting — we could call it a representative meeting, about 30 members being presenL— I took it that although they sent the delegctes with a free open hand to bace judgment according to arguments that were placed before us, they considered V: :t Is 6d rebate was insufficient. Our branch differs from other branches. We have no club room at all, we liold our meetings in the Hall, and pay the small fee of 2s 6d. We generally liold a little social afterwards for an bour or two to defray any expenses incurred. In some cases the sub-branches are arranging club rooms. That in itself means a certain amount of expenditure, and the people locally will support it to a great extent, and I think that is one of the arguments that some of the delegates will us.e, that the rebate will be a considerahle help. I want to say that at present we have no intention of having a club, but all the same it remains that a club is nceded. It dcpcnds on finance, I am not going to &ay that our sub -association generally speakirg, is in favour of Is 6d. I cannot honestly say so. Mr Cunningham : — I may state that the Tuatapere branch has had a very big fight up to the present time to keep its membership together. So far we have had no assistanoe, our expenses have been met out of social funds. If we received a larger rebate we could form club rooms, which;1' would considerably help to keep our members together. Our present membership is 53 on the roll and about 20 or 30 to be put on to the roll, so we will have to do our best to try and get some club rooms or something. If we built a room ifc would keep the boys together and it would be something to come along for. They say, "I am not going to ride 15 miles to coirua along to

a meeting for a few minutes." Unless we have a club room the men will be all wandering away. The Tuatapere branch cor-sider 3s rebate would he a fair thing. Mr B. Brooks : — The Bluff branch I think are the furthest behind of any branch. I think the membership on the roll is 60 and about 20 to be added to that. These cover a big district, as we have Stewart Island included in the Bluff Association. According to the roll I received from Mr Graham a large number of our members are unfinancial. Well, I went around the majority of them to see what they were going to do. They said, "What is the use of -paying up? What beuefits do I get? If we can see some.ihing for it we will pay out." The men do not think ls 6d rebate is sufficient, they think that if we could get more we could build a club room. Practically every man would pay his 10s then. They say that if Mr McGorlick and myself came back with ls 6d rebate it is absolutely hopeless. They are hard men t,o deal with down there. Unless you go round and bully them you can't get anything. You need a good man to do it. Personally I do not think I am good enought for it. They think ls 6d is insufficient to do anything with. Mr McGorlick : — The whole trouble arose from t-he visit of the Organiser. Although Mr Colquhoun is a good man, 1 do not think he put the position very clearly. I am afraid he did not spealc as clearly as he might have done. He told us we would have to fill in two cards for every man we had. That we found out later was really wrong. It was only a few. days ago that we realised ve were a sub-association. We had a roll sent from M" Graham, and we called a meeting at which there were only four present. In the limited time we had we could not do much. Of course we have a pretty hard crowd to deal with. If something could be done to bring them together we might be able to do something. I can assure you Mr Celquhoun left us with a very wrong impression. Mr McFeely here made reference to I the voting strength of the sub-associa-j tions compared with the voting strength of the parent-association. Mr Cunningham Most of the country members are anxious to help the parentassociation, but the whole trouble with the sub-asSociations at the present time is the lack of funds to do anything with definitely. So far we have not been able to give the secretary anything for his trouble. We have bom all expenses out of social money. President : — Country members think that they really -get nothing out of the Association, as the town members have a fine club in which to play billiards, pool, et-c., and they think we are living on their 10s We are all working for the one thing, to better the condition of the soidier. That is the crux of the position. Mr Graham In regard to the question of clubs for sub-associations, I would like you to understand that this is my personal opinion, the question of clubs for sub-associations is ono that will require very careful consideration. When we talk about forming a club, irninediulgly on doing that the social element is drawn in. When on Service there was no social spirit, we were all pals. Now we have got back to civilian life again, the social questions crops up. To form a club is good but there is that little thing at the back of it that has to be looked after. Another thing I would point out and that I am rather strong on, is Ihe benefits derived. Men ask, What benefit do we derive ? No man derives 5 per cent., he derives 500 por cent. Through the Returned Soldiers' Association the soidier has got every privilege. A man asles what benefit does he derive. We have all had gratuities. Then we must remember the widowed mother's a-llowance, dependant s allowan ce , separation allowance, and also the fact that a great number of Ihe unfortunate ones of us are receiving ponsions. You can see that there is not one man who can honestly say, that wa

have derived no benefits.' If he says it he has not thought. Another question is the position of the Soldiers' Club here, I admit it is rather a big one. In the first place the Soldiers' Club was started by the old National Ecserve, and was ran by a pur&ly civilian committee who collected a considerahle amount of money for the support of it. At the end of last year they handed over the management leaving the funds, some £2000 invested in trustees, and this money is to be expended at the rate of £200 per year. We have used over and above £200, but of course we must remember that this Association is not paying for lighting, fuel, or rent. As far as the club is concerned the funds of the association do not go into it. We hope that the independent club committee which has just been formed will put the club in a better position financially, and that we shall see a credit to the club funds, which are apart altogether from the R.S.A. funds. Another points is the appointment of Land Adviser. Some little time ago there was an appointment made on the Land Purchase Board. That appointment was made by the District Council, not by the local Association. Re tbe District Organiser, I am glad that the matter came up without my mentioning it. We can go back to the conference of last year in May, in Christchurch, when the scheme of organisation was first brought into being. I was sent from this association as their delegate and i I was bound to oppose a scheme of organi- : sation as laid down on the agenda. That • scheme of organisation was throvn out and the present scheme w as adopted, which was not as good a. scheme as the one thrown out. I opposed both. When the organiser was appointed he came down to Southland. He has worked hard and has done what he could. I quite agree with Mr McGorlick when he says that the position has not been properly explained. It is very far from perfect, and it is' only by asking questions that the thing can be got down to bedrock. I We could then understand the organisation better, but still I think it wants a tremendous amount of improvement. It was moved by Mr McFeely and seconded by Mr Macrae that the amount of rebate be 2s. Mr Cunningham asked if the sub-as-sociation would have to supply stationery, elc., out oi that. — To be decided later. LAND ADVISER. It was suggested to put up candidates for the position of Land Adviser. Mr Macrae asked when the nominations were to be in, and was iuforincd that they must be in by the 10th oi next month. Mr McFeely said that the Tuatapere branch could nomivate one man who was a practical farmer and had sound common sense. It v/as decided that nominations be received from the sub-branches for the position of Land Adviser. Mr McFeely moved that the final seleetion of a candidate be left to the Invercargill Executive. This was secondcd by Mr Crowther. — Carried. Mr Blake then spoke in regard to "The Digger." He said, "1 want the soldiers in the country to take a real live interest in their papor. There are a large number of agents throughout Southland. We want you to mention the paper, and use it, as it is part oi your organisation, and if there is a requisite amount of reeognition of those who advertise in our eoiumns it cannot fail to succeed and be a*i important factor in R.S.A. affairs. 1 want you to go away from here with an interest in the paper." A vote of thanks was given to the chairman for the satisfactory way he explained the position.