CHARITABLE RELIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 11

CHARITABLE RELIEF.

WORK OF AUCKLAND BOARD.

Speaking of relief work, the chairman of the Hospital Board, Mr. William Wallace, said that it was not often realised by the outside world the enormous amount of' time devoted by board members to the detail and routine work of giving relief. They did not advertise their relief work, but it was done with a thoroughness which was clearly shown by-how seldom mistakes were made. This week he had been at a meeting which sat many long hours trying to unravel the mass of detail which had been placed before- them by their inspector, whose grip of the work was well known. It was quite a common thing for : the relief committee to. sit continuously all the afternoon, right on till 7 o'clock, without a break. The work was carried out so thoroughly that while they had dozens of problems to solve they seemed to escape some of those which'troubled those in other centres.

Many poor people were now living under better conditions, but things were far from perfect yet. One of, the greatest difficulties they found-in their work was that there were so many who lacked energy and did very little to help themselves. When he took up some information sheets, and traced ba«P to the origin of the claims, it was appalling to see how certain families, decade after decade, seemed never to rise above their poverty ,but leaned on the board to do their thinking for them. He thought it was only right that the people who footed the bill should know that the relief work in the city was carried out in a thorough and very systematic way by those who freely gave of their time and experience for the purpose.