Ashburton Guardina. Magna est Veritas st Prævalebit FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1909. A GREAT LESSON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7725, 19 February 1909, Page 2

Ashburton Guardina. Magna est Veritas st Prævalebit FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1909. A GREAT LESSON.

The genius of social reform m iSew Zealand has not yet spoken the last •,vord on the treatment of poverty. We have charitable aid Acts and boards, numerous laws and plenty of administrative machinery, but the conditions which render these things necessary not only continue, but year by year entail more expenditure m connection with charitable aid, and the treatment of poverty m this young, prosperous and "sparsely . peopled country. This may be a proof of various things, but surely or.« of these is the fact that wo must be working under wrong methods. The late Dr Duncan Macgrcgor, m the valuable reports which lie annually wrote as Inspector of Hospitals and Charitable- Aid, was wont to dwell vigorously on this point of view, and to insist that the essential necessity, of the matter consisted not i.i the relief of poverty but m the cure of pauperism by the development of that j personal character which either makes i poverty practically impossible or relaj lively endurable. This factor of \M\r[sonni charaeted is, so. to speak, the i corner stone of what is known as the | Elbe.rfeid system, which happen^ to consist m a civic or-municipat application of principles and methods originated by Dr Chalmers, the celebrated Scottish divine, when he was minister <of St. John's parish, Glasgow, about I the beginning of the-second quarter of the nineteenth century. Chalmers's daughter was living m Elberi'eld about twenty-five years later; there she- advocated her father's principles, which were assimilated by the _ sympathetic and constructive mind of Daniel yon dor Hoydt, the son of an Elbferfeld banker. In the years 1850-52, the town lof Elberfeld was m embarrassed circumstances. Tlip rates were exorbitant, the income fell below the expenditure. Charities abounded, but the ratio of paupers increased far beyond that of population. There were four thousand paupers to fifty thousand inhabitants. I'ut the first year after the adoption of tiie new method the cost of relief was reduced by one-fourth. In five years "the rates, became trifling; street begging had disappeared; charity was little required; paupers numbered only 1,400, m an increased population." And now we are told that, at the present time, Elberfeld has no slums m the British sense of the word, no submerged tenth; pauperism and crime have correspondingly diminished ; and the rates have been redi'iced to a mini num.. With results like these, is it to be wondered —asks a well-informed observer —that other German t-vv:is have adopted the system o.>" after another, —Hamburg, I'Va"' '.'iirt, Mainz, Leipzig, Berlin, a;!;: many more? Apart from the economic advantages, the system has rendered enormous service m enabling communities to find out cases of deserving poverty that would otherwise have been undiscovered; to eliminate criminal from general poverty; to reduce greatly indiscriminate almsgiving; and perhaps most valuable of all, it has brought hundreds and thousands of well-to-do citizens face to face with the problems "of poverty m their own cities. But to understand the principles and the methods under which this beneficent change has been accomplished at .ISlbwrfeld. m Germany, we must go back to Dr Chalmers and his original scheme, m Glasgow. To quote his own words: " If you confine yourself to the relief of poverty, you do little. Dry up if possible the springs of poverty j for every attempt to stem the running stream has signally failed." Character was what he aimed at, and he had faith m the inherent manliness of the people. "Help the poor to help themselves; teach them to look upon pauperism as a degradation." Such were his tenets. His method was to provide every one below or near the poverty-line with a helper, whose duty it was to put him m the way of improving his position. The parish of St. •John's, m which Chalmers tried his experiment, was the poorest m Glasgow. It consisted of ten thousand inhabitants, most of them of the working class, and many of them casual labourers, —not unlike an East End London parish to-day. To facilitate the work of personal service of the poor, the parish was divided into twenty-fiyo districts, each district being put m charge of a deacon, who m his turn supervised the work of his helpers, no helper undertaking more than three or four families each. Herein lies the secret of the success, —it is m the personal influence on the individual clisrjictor. No one was'to starve; every one m want was to be attended to: but the poor fund and the liberalities of the rich vcro to be the last resources. As ;i matter of fact, afier long disuse, this very plan is being followed m Glasgow at the present mo•■vont by tiie branches of the Glasgow Civic League. As an instance of what i i 1: done by one of these branches, aj block containing .twenty tenements, or i close:-, covering two hundred houses, j is regularly visited, each tenement be-! ing m the charge of a " Captain," and j e;:c!i C.";i)t;-i'i having under him help-j "■:■■"■- i:u!i<y.i ;Mid ;jv:i tlc-mon —who under- j -f:i!:o lo visit oneu a for! ni^ht two or; three families. The, helpers 1., or visitors, ; are not permitted to giro money or, moneys worth to nuy <:f their "friends, 1' but whoru there is distress' they report the case to one of the

many existing benevolent societies for relief by them, Otherwisetheilr duties are to make friends with the people-, and, when they .can with ta'c.fc, help 'them with.advice iii any Way-. Tho ultimate aim U. «!'ifM x an experience sufficiently long, to.brin.fi: the results under | tHB notice, of tho municipality,, to.iiir I du'co the. Corporation, of Glasgow and other cities to bring the- m'attbr before. Parliament, and -sb introduce the Elberfeld sVslem into Britain, with snc'i jtmend'nents. r-.s may suit, the tern ])e'f.'a-ment .of the British people . Surely m all this there is a great lesson for New Zealand; and wore it rightly learned and rightly expressed m practice, we should srinrjly all bo gainers—thos^ who . personally serrdch find ..tl'.oso: v-;J:o:. were personally server] by- their fellow-men : and the waste of public money. nnfi the erradual pauper-i-sntion of a considerable percentage of the people, which havr> boon poinc; on for nmnv yonr.3. would surely "also coa.se to burden and disgrace the country.