CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11536, 19 March 1903, Page 2

CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

AX INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

The Charitable Aid Board met yesterday afternoon, tho attendance consisting of Messrs J. T. Smith (in the chair). O. Wallace. £>. Harris. J. Gough, J. Wolfe, .1Dobeon, H. R. J. Harper, B. P. Manhir*. and Mrs Black. The Chairman/a report stated that the Samaritan Home Trustees had made a requisition for £500 from the Board to carry on the work of their institution, and the St. Saviour's Guild were asking for an additional £20 for the nvuiag,;inent of the Female Refuge. The several items of departmental requirements for the ensuing year had been carefully considered by the" different committees, and as carefully reviewed by the Finance Committee, which now submitted the following recommendations:—-(1) That out of funds in hand the sum of £400 be applied towards ' completion of the Tuarangi Institution. It was proposed to adopt the septic tank system, and to put the outbuildings in substantial repair. (2) That the sum of £100 be similarly applied to" the installation of an acetylene gas plant at the Memorial Home. Both recommendations were accepted, ?<nd the additional sum for the Female Refuge in connection with St. Saviour's Guild was granted. Iho estimates for the. nest financial year shoved anticipated requirements as follows:— Ashburton Home £1800,' Female Refuge Homo £580. Lvttelton Orphanage £850. Memorial Home £1800. Armagh Street Depot £250, outdoor lelief £6403. boarded out (other than orphanage) iiBM. industrial schools £800. general _p?neej» £900, contingencies £500, Samaritan Home £600: .total £15.080. Allowing for various amounts, the estimated net requirements for the year were stated at £15.538. One half was to be obtained from consolidated revenue, the other from contributory local authorities. The estimates provided for repair* to tho amount of £100 to the Ashburton Home and Memorial Home respectively, and to the amount of £50 for the female refuge. In consequence of correspondence received the estimated - requirement for the latter institute was increased from £380 to £400. The Samaritan Home Trustees wrote, applying for a vote of £600 for the management of the Home for the ensuing year. Mr Harper moved that the Bourd considered the requisition excessive as compared with former yeans, and unreasonable, because the minimum of £100 of annual voluntary contributions contemplated by the Act had not been obtained, nor was apparently being anticipated by tho trustees, and that until the said minimum amount was provided the Board declined to vote any contribution to the Home. The annual voluntary contiibutions to the Home, he pointed out, had fallen recently from £66 in one year to £54 in tho next, and tho estimated amount for this coming year was only £50. The .subsidies from the Government, of course, showed a proportionate decrease, and he supported'that v the Home only raised £50 this year in voluntary contributions it would get from the 'Government £60, leaving £110 to tie made up by the Charitable Aid Board. He maintained," taking a reasonable view of the Act, that the trustees were hound to showthat they had got £100 in voluntary contributions, before they could requisition the Board. Moreover, many of the inmates who were kept in the Home ought to be a charge on the genera! revenue of fhvj colony. If they were not there, they would be sent to gaol, and he did not see why this particular Charitable Aid Board should be mulcted to the extent proposed, for the sake of contributing to the maintenance of criminals. Hia principal stand, however, was that nothing should be voted until the trustees stowed the amount of voluntary contributions required. Mr Harris, in seconding the motion, said that he thought it was an extraordinary thing that a call should be made for £600. In Ids opinion it was an unreasonable amount. ' Mr Sorensen urged that the coat of the Home was less than that of any other conducted by the Board. There was a difference of opinion as to whether the clas.-* of inmates referred to should lie in gaol or not,-. Regarding the £60(7 "requisitioned for, he would point wit that the year before last the trustees asked for £400, and the Board voted that amount. Last year, after reducing the cost of management by economical work, the trustees had asked for only £250. The Board voted £34. which they declined to accept. " Accordingly they had received nothing at all last year, and if they obtained the £600 asked "for now, it would only represent £300 a year for the two years. With regard to voluntary contributipns, there had been a loss of £20 from one single source. There were differences of opinion on the question of management, all of which had not yet been removed. If the trustees did not carry on the work the Board would have to do so. He would oppose the motion, -uter some discussion as to order of procedure, it was agreed, on the suggestion of tho Chairman, that Mr Sorensen should move that the £600 he paid, and that Mr Harper's motion be taken as an amendment. Mrs Black, in seconding Mr Sorensen'* motion, said the Board should vote a rea-