PENSIONS AND CHARITY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 200, 18 May 1908, Page 6

PENSIONS AND CHARITY.

- CHANCED CONDITIONS. MORE DEMAND FOR THE HOMES. (BT CORRESrONDHNT.) ~ ' .Chrlstohurch, May 16. The various charitable aid institutions in tho North Canterbury district aro unusually full at the present time. The Jubilee Home, whioh takes . old women and old married ; couples, has as many inmates as it can contain. Tho Ashburton Home, which receives old men, is very nearly full, and the isamaritan- Home, which takes', both, old men .and old women, has no spare beds at all. The situation is the moro'-unsatisfactorybecause the weather lias not yet broken, and. paused ! tho annual rush for the homes by old people. - A representative of the "Times" mado some' i inquiries yesterday, with : a view of ascertain-" ing the cause of the threatened congestion iu the homes. He gathered that it was duo to conditions that' have been operating for some years.' A considerable'proportion'of_ the inmates- of the institutions are recipients of the old agfe pension. In the early days of the' pensibn.scheme, the old-age pensioners did i / not care to enter public institutions, bccaosa they objected to the stigma of charity av taching to these places. They have realised of late, however, that they used not sacrifice their independence, because their. p&nsjon i will pay for thejr board. Then tho pension of 10s. per week may enable tho man ot si.ityfive to support himself with tho assistance of his small earnings,'but' at' seventy-five lie cannot live on his pension, exoeptj.with tlw. i , help .of friends or in, an,, institution. . . _ The Secretary of tile Charitable: Aid Board, when questioned, said'.that, for years past tliero had boon a steady iucrease-.in th& number iof ". applications for ' ..admission to the homes, mado on behalf of old ago pensioners. "I consider,"; he said, "as I said many years ago, that in some cases it woijld be kinder tx) put tho pensioners into a homo specially provided,'.rather: tlian'to ,give'thorn, a cash .allowance.. Some,.-are -unajble look after themselves and have no.relations on whom. they can depend.., Thoy. co.uld not, maintain themselves •if they had:;a, pension of J i week, but they could be,-made comfortable on tho amount of .their pension if they could be placed in a spbciahinstitution quite apart from the. ordinary charitable organisations. At present some of the old people do not make good uso of their-pensions, though this • is no reflection upon t-he pensioners as a body. We havo nearly TO old age pensioners m the homes oontrolled: by tho Board." ■