SAMARITAN HOME.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11547, 1 April 1903, Page 5

SAMARITAN HOME.

THE QUESTION OF SUBSIDY.

A special meeting of the Sanrantai Home Trustees waa held yesterday afternoon, to consider a communication received from the Chairman of the Charitable Aid Board on the question of a subsidy. There were present Messrs C. Hastings Bridge (chairman), F. J. Board, C. H. Winny, H. B. Sorensen, and Mrs Black. The chairman expressed his regret that, in spite of the important business to be considered, there was only a bare quorum present. The letter from the Chairman of the Charitable Aid Board stated that the Tru<rtees' amended requisition for £490. whilst allowing for estimated receipts from voluntary contributions (£100) and subside (£120) for the ensuing financial year, did not comply with the Board's stipulation that the receipts from similar sources should be made up to equal amount in respect of the year now ending; whereas the Trustees appeared to have collected only £54 and £63 from such sources respectively, up to the present date. Provided the Trustees would make good the deficit of £46 in voluntary subscriptions by May Ist proximo, and would undertake to collect at least £ICO more before submitting their next annual estimates to the Board, the Board would be recommended to reconsider its decision, and to vote supplies tip to £580, or possibly £400. Emphasis was placed on the fact that the proposal related not only to the finances of the year ensuing, but to those of the financial year which closed yesterday as weil. A letter which had been written to the Colonial Secretary, asking the appointment of a Commission to test Ihe legality of the position as between the Trustees and , the Board, me being lield back from transmission, in case the Trustees could suggest an alternative After a further amended requisition had been received on the lines indicated, the Board would be prepared favourably to reconsider the whole question. The Chairman stated that this letter put ft very different aspect on the matter from the resolution of the Board, wliich was considered by the Trustees at their last meeting. The Board then refused to give any assistance until £100 in voluntary contributions was found, but this, as the speaker understood it, referred to the ensuing year, and not to the year just past. Now the Board were asking for not less than £146. Evidently it was considered to be the business of the Board to make conditions, and that of the Trustees to conform to them. There would be no finality to this sort of thing, and in the speaker's opinion the only way out of the whole difficulty was the legal method suggested. The most the law could demand a separate institution like the Samaritan Home to provide, was £220 a year (£IOO voluntary contributions, and £120 subsidy). The Trustees had really provided more than this, for the law did nob consider the earnings of the Home, amounting to £362 7s lid for the past three years. The institution was therefore £100 to the good as far as the taxpayer was concerned, so that the latter had not much to complain of. Again, had the Charitable Aid Board collected farthing lees from the taxpayers last year, because the Trustees had received nothing, and would they diminish their estimates this year, if the Trustees should receive nothing again? He was quite prepared, personally, to abide by the finding of a Commission. It was certainly impossible for the Trustees to give a guarantee with regard to next year'e voluntary contributions, as' they might become personally liable for the" amour, t. Air Sorensen agreed with this last statement but thought that while the Trustees probably had certain legal rights, it would be better to settle the matter without going to law. The Trustees could ear that they would do their best to find the £100 voluntary contributions next year. Mr Winny advised that, considering the position the Charitable Aid! Board had taken up, the Trustees should swallow their pride, and, as they had no funds to carry on the institution, they should accept the £34 voted to them last year, which they had then refused. The financial position 'had materially improved during the past week, and the voluntary contributions now stood at £76 3e 6d. With regard to next year, they could only promise to do their best to raise the required amount, and he thought himself that they would be able to get it. Mrs Black also spoke in deprecation of legal proceedings. Mr Board stated that in his opinion the Charitable Aid Board was to some extent right in the position they had taken up Tegarding the amount of voluntary contributions for last year. These receipts now stood at £76, leaving only £24 to get. The Chairman: "I can guarantee £10." .>lr Board continued tlmt if a special effort were made the £100 would be raised, and the Charitable Aid Board would grant tin* subsidy. Next year tho Board could only foroo their hands to see that they obtained the necessary £100, the same as on the present occasion. The Board's conditions seemed to him fairly sound, and a commission would probably think so also Hβ urged the Trustees to try to raise the balance of the £100 thus year, and to do their best with regard to the amount for n«xt year. He suggested also that the Board be invited to accept a portion of the work undertaken by the Home. The Chairman expressed himself as still convinced that the only way to solve the difficulty for all time waa the establishment of a oomm&eion. After some further discussion the following motion, proposed by Mr Sotvn?en, was agreed to unanimously:—"That, in reply to the communication from tihe secretary of the Charitable Aid Board, received on March 28th, the Trustees wish to inform the Board that, up to date, the sum of £32 has been raised to meet the deficit of £46, and tliat the Board be asked to reconsider the resolution passed by thtm ou the matter; and with reference to the ensuing year tho Trustees will use every endeavour to raise the minimum amount oi £100." Regarding tho suggestion that la.vt year's rejected subsidy of £34 be re-demandeil, Mr Board pointed out that a special meeting would be required to revoke tlie resolution previously passed in the matter, and the subject was not discussed further. TO THE EDITOH OF THE PRESS. Sir, —Mr Harper's letter, which appeared in your yesterday's issue, in reference to the above, is so calculated to convey to the public a wrong impression as to the position of the Home, that I must ask you to allow uit a email space in your columns to reply thereto. The Charitable Aid Board's chief ground of complaint against the Samaritan Home appeal's to be because thfc doors are open to men. Mr Harper says that " it waa understood that the Board was not providing for the support of male inmates." Such an understanding was never come to.

When the buildings were first handed over by the Government for the work there were men in the institution, and one of the conditions attached to the granting of the «"*• of the buildings was that the men should not be turned out, and men were ia the institution when it was incorporated r.s a separate institution under the Hoepit al and Charitable Institutions Act in 1898. In 1897, previous to the incorporation, owing to want of funds, the -whole of the men were discharged, but*because the Cliaritable Aid Board either -would not or could not make provision for them, the greater numbex had to be readmitted. On several occasions men have 'been sent to the Home by the Board's officials, because they lmd nowhere else to place them. When the new Home at Ashburton was opened the Trustees again approached the Board with a view to the removal of the men from the Samaritan Home. The only answer the Trustees received was a proposal that 'the whole of the work should be handed over to the Board, which, of course, was quite impossible. The Truetees are now ready to give up the work on the men's side if the Charitable Aid Board will undertake to provide for them, but they are not prepared to turn them into the streets, to be left there. ■ The position taken up by the Charitable Aid Board is, according' to Mr Harper, on behalf of the taxpayers, and he endeavours to show that owing to the TrusteiM having failed to raise the £100 per in:mini mentioned in the Act, they have contributed £26 more towards the support cf the institution than they should have. Now the very most that the Trustees of a separate institution are required to raise outside what comes through the District Board Is £220. During the five years the Samaritan Home has been in existence voluntary contributions have amounted to £408, Government subsidy on same £489, making a total of £897, which leaves a deficiency of £203, not £260, as Mr Harper states." But, in addition to the above, the earnings of the Home during the same pt-riod have amounted to £372, -which, though not recognised by the Act, the Trustees may fairly take credit for in considering this aspect of the question. Further, not one penny of expense has ever been incurred for secretarial work. The trustees would-have been quite justified in appointing a paid official, but this work has been done gratis, so that they can hardly be charged with having made " extraordinary" demands upon the Board. — Yours, etc., C. HASTINGS BRIDGE, Chairman Samaritan Home Trustees. March 31st, 1903.