HELPING THE BLIND

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 103, 25 January 1933, Page 7

HELPING THE BLIND

Institute’s New Name MAKING USEFUL CITIZENS By an amendment to the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, passed on December 9, 1932, the change in the name of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind to .that of the New Zealand Institute for the Blind has been authorised. Under the old name the institute .gave 42 years’ service to the blind people of the Dominion, teaching them to read and write, play musical instruments, follow wage-earning occupations. and become ordinary useful units in the community. In 1890, Mr. John Tighe interested a number of Auckland citizens,-notably Bishop Cow'ie and Mr. John Abbot, in the need for ah organisation to care for the blind, with the result that the; Society of the Friends.of the Blind was -set up. Mr. Abbot was successful in raising a sum of about £250, the surplus proceed of the fiftieth jubilee celebrations fo the founding of the colony, which was handed over as the nucleus. It was this jubilee which was associated with the institute’s old name.

In Wellington the institute is represented by the New Zealand Red Cross Society, 63 Dixon Street, with .Mr. M. S. Galloway as honorary secretary. The society arranges regular outings and social gatherings for the blind people of the city and suburbs, and in many ways contributes to their comfort and happiness. There is also the Wellington Braille Club, with .Mrs. S. Israel as its honorary secretary, which has trained many women to transcribe works into the Braille system, thus adding considerably to the amount of literature available. The members conduct Braille correspondence with blind people in different parts of the Dornin-; ion. A regular supply of Braille volumes is maintained at the Newtown branch of the city library. It has always been the institute’s policy to entourage its more capable and enterprising members to take up trades and professions they can follow as independent. citizens. Blind welfare work in early Victorian times was generally regarded as the relieving of distress among an indigent and afflicted class, providing them with a bare'existence under workhouse conditions. The modern institute, however, gives blind people the same opportunity ns the unafflicted have of making their own way in (lie world, and of enjoying the good things of life.

An energetic disciple of the. modern point of view was Sir Arthur. Pearson, himself blind., who did splendid work during the war with the Empire’s blind soldiers at St. Dunstan’s, London. He considered that if blind people were to be trained to do things, these should not merely be hobby occupations, but

economically useful services and the making of goods which were actually necessary to the community. To-day there are blind masseurs, piano tuners, farmers, shopkeepers, musicians, university coaches, salesmen, basketmakers', and other tradesmen whose work is sound and able to hold its own on its merits. In 1921, in order to widen the institute’s ability to: establish in occupations those, whom it had trained, the Sir Arthur Pearson Memorial Fund was started. From it a steady revenue is received, and applied to the making of loans and grants to blind people. The headquarters of the institute in Auckland comprises a fine set of modern red-brick buildings set in several acres of pleasant lawns, trees, and bright flower beds, boarding school and workshops, residential quarters, gymnasium, music rooms, retail shop, and playgrounds. The roll usually numbers 140—a constantly-changing community, as there is a steady flow of those arriving and completing courses.