Bishop On Sponsoring Of Needy Children

Press, Volume C, Issue 29557, 5 July 1961, Page 17

Bishop On Sponsoring Of Needy Children

“I know that, the business of sponsoring a child in Hong Kpng helps you to raise money here, but it makes it mighty difficult at the other end.” said the Bishop of Hong Kong (the Rt. Rev. R. O. Hall) to the Christchurch Rotary Club at a luncheon yesterday. Bishop Hall said that it was difficult to give benefits to only one child in a group. The others wondered why they could not get the same advantages or could not be sponsored. Some sponsored children also received more than other children who were sponsored. “Send us money to spend as best we see fit,” Bishop Hall said. “It is one of these problems of receiving and giving aid. Send it without strings." The real problem of Hong Kong was the new citizens -—most of whom were born in maternity wards, he said. Hong Kong had a natural increase Of 90.000 a year.

Co-operation between the English and Chinese had been a marked influence in the

development of the island, Bishop Hall said. There was also a large number of persons of mixed parentage. The character, quality, and ability of these persons were marked. There was. however. a problem in the preserving of both cultures. In an effort to overcome this a second university was being started at which the instruction would be in Chinese. At the one already existing the teaching was done in English. One university would be preserving the Chinese and the other the British culture. Bishop Hall said that the new industrial development had meant that most of the refugees were employed in factories. Americans were realising that Hong Kong was a good place for investment. Their cost of production, however, could only be achieved on low wages and low taxation. The low taxation meant that there could not be social security and oldage benefits. “The workers are making the prosperity, but not sharing in it,” he said. In efforts to increase wages indirectly, the authorities aimed at providing one meal a day for children in schools. About 70.000 of the 500.000 children in primary schools were not getting enough to eat, Bishop Hall said. The idea was to give children meals for five days of the week for 200 days of the yedr. This would cost £6 10s a year for a child. Bishop Hall said that although he did not consider himself an expert on marketing. he believed that New Zealand could sell frozen goods to Hong Kong.