OUR. ABERDARE FUND—POINTS FROM LEI IhItS A further collection of

excerpts from readers' letters about our fund is appended. Many correspondents empress the hope that the money may be spent locally. This week we are glad to include typical extracts from letters received from Aberdare shopkeepers.

,Williams & Co., Provision Merchants, 2 Cardiff Street, Aberdare. We feel that we should thank the Organising Commistes for the equitable way in which the Spectator Fund is distributed. The voucher system is undoubtedly the best and fairest: for, all concerned. The recipient is enabled to have what is required,

• and the trader, after such a long period of depression is in mach need of that extra business. We appreciate these facts very

much, and the traders of Aberdare are greatly indebted to the . Spectator " Aberdare Fund " for its timely aid.. Peglers'- StOres: Ltd., 'Grocers, Aberdare: - As traders with heavy rates and expenses we should like to express our appreciation of the work of your Committee, in administering the Spectator Fund. The method of issuing vouchers by which the customer can take it to any trader she chooses is ideal, bqth from the recipient's and the trader's stand- point, and-the receipt of these vouchers is doubly welcome by grocers in the quiet trading month which usually follows Xmas ; the number of vacant shops in the town testify to the need of support which tradespeople require at the present time. Had your method pf issuing vouchers been adopted by other towns the volume of correspondence in the South Wales Press regarding unfair methods of distribution would have been far less. We have received a number of vouchers during the last week or two, and it will be a pleasure to your Committee to know that the recipients are confining their purchases to absolute necessaries. With best wishes for the further success of your fund.

J. Roberts- 4P Son, Provision Merchants, Aberaman.

The Spectator displayed excellent judgment and sense of fairness in drawing up their Voucher scheme. If our experience is-at all general, then their scheme has secured a just distribution of orders for all local traders, and we should like to say how much we appreciate their thoughtfulness, and how grateful we are for .this very satisfactory and equitable arrangement.

H. Job; Grocer, Terminus Stores, etomaman.

I wish to offer to the Spectator my deepest thanks for the Grocery Voucher System they have inaugurated in connexion *ith the Fund to relieve the distress in the Aberdare Valley. The vouchers have been a great help to me as a small trader, helping me a great deal to keeping going.. Could the readers of the Spectator only see the happiness to the trader and to the miner's home their vouchers give, they would feel amply rewarded for their

financial assistance to Aberdare. • Mr. James Dickson, Hotel De o osiebelle, Hyeres.

I -have already subscribed to a Miners' Fund, but consider your proposal to provide 5s. per week such a good one that I enclose two cheques (one from my wife) for £3 each. This will provide 5s. weekly .for two families for twelve weeks, and we would like it given to families with children.

Miss M. Elsie Atkins, 10 Milton Chambers, 123 Cheyne Walk, S.W .10: --I am glad to-see that the money is to be spent locally, as I an sure the tradesmen must be suffering equally with the miners.

Mr. Arthur Eastwood, Leigh Court, Taunton.

I shall be glad to make one of the 1,500, and enclose a cheque for £1, being 5s.,for four weeks.

Mr. Robert Watson, 6 Corrennie Gardens, Edinburgh.

- I am willing—gladly—to be one of the 1,500 Sppetotor readers contributing 5s. a week from this date- to the end of April, towards the assistance of a similar number of destitute families in Aberdare, and on hearing from you as to how it is suggested the money should be remitted I shall be glad to do my bit. I can either send periodically—weekly, fortnightly or otherwise— or in one sum.

[Either the whole sum may be remitted to the Spectator office, to be forwarded to Aberdare, or the amounts may be sent in weekly instalments.—En. Spectator.] Karshish," Westgate-on-Sea.

I give willingly and eagerly, but I trust that the reconstruction of the distressed areas will soon be an accomplished fact and that the need for charity will no longer exist.

Mr. A. H. Empson, Box Farm, Bracknell, Berks.

May I suggest that, the immediate necessities of the case having presumably been met, a considerable portion of the large stun collected might be devoted to some permanent form of relief, e.g., the emigration of suitable families or the starting of new local industries ?

Rev. G. Davies Jones, Llanfor Rectory, Bak, N. Wales. I have much pleasure in enclosing cheque value £1 2s., towards

' the Spectator Aberdare Fund. It should be recorded as from the " Llanfor Church Carol Singers," and is the result of carol singing on the part of some members of the choir of Llanfor Church, Merionethshire.

Rev. S. E. L. Skelton, 201 Lennard Road, Beckenham, Kent. Enclosed please find a cheque for 10s. towards the Aberdare Fund, which I consider is well worthy of support, especially during the cold weather, when the cold has a most disaetrons , effect upon poorly nourished bodies of young and old alike.

Mr. Fred W. Tanner, Duffield House, Stoke Green, Nr. Slough. The methods you are adopting in. connexion with relief .in Aberdare appear to me to be particularly practical and effective.