SEVERELY CRITICISED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 221, 11 June 1908, Page 8

SEVERELY CRITICISED.

A CHRISTCHURCH INSTITUTION. DESCRIBED AS A BLOT ON THE DIS- . TKICT. ... The.Samaritan Home, Christchurch, which, was the first institution ill the Dominion ,to bo gazetted for the: reception.of habitual 'drunkards under" tho., Act of 1906, bulked rather largely in the proceedings of tho Hospitals and Charitable. Aid .Conference y.esterday.

Mr. W. H. Cooper, who is the delegate of the Samaritan Home Trustees, said the institution ho represented filled a useful placo between charitable aid and the gaol. It was commended by the stipendiary magistrate, it took inmates whom no other institution provided, for.- There were ,73 inmates. .Outcast womon and others' were oommitted to.; the Hpine •by the magistrates, instead of. to gaol. Matormty cases wero taken in, including young women who had fallen, a number of time's. The cost per - inmate , was 7s. a .week, as'- against 10s. in other institutions. There was representation of tho City Council and two County Councils on tho hoard of trustees. n Mr. B, I\ Manhire (chairman:of tho'North Canterbury Charitable/Aid Board) expressed i a very different, opinion of 'the institution referred to. He described it as a blot-on tho district. It was occupied by;a lot of loafers, who had'nothing, to do- but. pick a; few'peas and mend a few- sacks, in which .they were competing "with outride labour. Habitual drunkards were also taken in, and were to be seen walking up and down and doing noth-ing.-.lf these people broke, the laws, there were- the. gaols for- them—men or women. ("No,;jib.") .That was a matter of opinion. Women had told the magistrate - they would rather go to gaol. (A Voice:, Some 'of them.") The Home was claimed to be cheap, but it had got the building, free from' -tho Government., Accounts were kept, but •it was difficult to . get them. audited, and the Board hardly knew what the position was. It.was a begging institution, and when'there w ' as J" 'tea-fight," requests wero made that the fpod left. over, should be sont along to "{JS Honie. • It hid been said that the Honie cirected a saving, of. tho ratepayers' ■ money, but surely it was not satisfactory to the ratepayers that the maternity'cases in'the Homo should have a . vory- much easier t.iin—six months absolute idleness, in fact—than the wives.of working men outside.." He did not' J va ij fe 1° oufc sucll institutions; but . .he ■l if .- a * "ioso wanted■ to: run them should put their, hands in.their; own pockets an -»r n com e to the ratepayers for help. _ Mr. G. Payling (chairman of the North Canterbury Hospital Board) . expressed the opinion that the.'Samaritan Home could be carried on more economically, and with more advantage to the inmates and tihe community by ; the Charitab e Aid Board. At present .it was a boarding-house for those who misconducts .themselves, .and who should be sent instead to a-place,where they would be made rV?- _ T£e ' State ought not to be contributing 7s.a day for these people to loaf at the Samaritan Home.