CHARITY-VIA TRENTHAM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1922, Page 4

CHARITY-VIA TRENTHAM.

The British habit of combining charity with enjoyment has attracted the attention of native satirists and foreign observers. When the Englishman wants to give something to the Society for the Assistance of Decayed Trombone-players, he buys a guinea ticket for a dinner, has a good meal and listens to speeches about the admirable work of the society. If you suggested that the cost of the dinner might go to the fund, he would be no more impressed than a society woman would be if it was pointed out to her i that there are more economical ways of assisting (he Belgians than by spending £1000 on a. ball that returns a profit of £10. The .New Zealand Government, howover, has gone one better than these indirect methods of raising the wind. In order to help the unemployed, the Minister of Internal Affairs has transferred to the Wellington Tracing Club a surrendered totalisator permit, so t hate the club may hold an extra day's racing at Trentham. The "surplus" is to go to the unemployed, by which is presumably meant the State's share in the totalisutor investments. Perhaps it is pcrmis- | sible to congratulate the Wellington i Racing Club on having discovered the un-l employed. It will doubtless afford racegoers the keenest satisfaction to knowthat while they are enjoying a day's, outing at Trentham—with betting of. course strictly as a side-line —they arc] also assisting unfortunate out-of-works to tide over the winter. The moral glow at Trentham will be visible at a long distance. If it is objected that; £20.000 has to be put through the j machine, to say nothing of all the ex-1 penses of the meeting, in order to provide, say. £1000 for the unemployed/ there is the precedent of the charity! dinner and the charity ball —but \ betterpd. of course, as one would expect, them to be in this progressive country.! It is not impossible that some of the J unemployed will find their way to Tren-1 tham on this day, and by having "a bitj on,'' contribute to their o«'n relief. Our! most serious objection to this quaint enterprise is that the Government is not | making the most of its opportunity. Tf j thorp is going to be a race meeting in ; aiii of the unemployed, why not hold ii ' in Auckland, where the investments would be certain to be larger than in j Wellington ? Perhaps the Auckland l Chamber of Commerce will take action; in the matter. j i