Opportunity for collectors of military memorabilia

Rotorua RSA members can take one last look around the old club on Saturday - and also get first dibs at its memorabilia sale.

Doors open to members at 9.30am and to the general public at 10.30am.

The memorabilia sale is to help raise more funds for the ailing association, which closed its doors in July due to mounting debts.

The building is to be auctioned on October 29. A loan will be paid back to the Rotorua Lakes Council and anything left over will go towards re-establishing the club elsewhere.

"We're hoping there'll be nothing left over," said Rotorua RSA secretary Julie Hill.

She said members would have to produce their cards to get early access to the sale, which has around 500 different items up for grabs.

Mrs Hill said they had checked as far as they could that no one had any legal ownership over items for sale, but if anyone believed they did have an entitlement they needed to prove it was theirs before Saturday.

"We've had a few inquiries, I've had a few people ask when me they see me walking down the street.

"The focus has been sorting the memorabilia. We'll see where we are after the auction and make a decision from there.

"The behind the scenes work has been a priority. They've put some amazing time in. Even though we're not open there's never not been anyone here working."

Among the items are military plaques, tankards and other odds and ends, including ashtrays forged out of artillery shells in prisoner of war camps.

The Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust bought about 3500 items that will be held at the Rotorua Museum. These will be made available for loan to the Rotorua RSA in the future.

All the uniforms, which mostly date from World War II, are to be auctioned in Wellington next year, and all the RSA's military weaponry has gone to Auckland to be auctioned in November.

?If you think you might be the rightful owner of any items left at the Rotorua RSA, please call (07) 348 1055.