THE DUTY OF GIVING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 28 January 1909, Page 6

THE DUTY OF GIVING.

MILLIONAIRE'S ADVICE TO RICH MEN.

Sir W. P. Hartley, Liverpool's millionaire philanthrophist, and a leading Primitive Methodist, in laying the foundation stone of a new workshop for the outdoor blind in Cornwallis street, New-castle-on-Tyne, gave some very cogent advice to rich people on the duty of "giving." He first of all agreed with Mr J. D. Rockfeller that it was a mistake to assume that possession of money necessarily brought happiness. The rich if they got pleasure from their wealth did so because of their ability to do things which gave satisfaction to someone besides themselves. They needed to cultivate the taste for giving. Those words of Mr Rockfeller, remarked Sir William, exactly expressed his views. It was in his opinion, both the duty and the privilege of Liverpool citizens to provide workshops in which the blind could earn their own living. "Those of us," he said, "who have more endowments of any kind than our fellows should not consider that those endowments are for ourselves alone, .but are intended to be shared, and if we do our duty must be shared in a liberal and reasonable manner with those of our fel-i lows who are less endowed. I ,wish to put in a strong word," he remarked, "for systematic and proportionate giving, which I have practised for more than thirty years, and I recommend it to business men especially as a clear outlet from the commercial into the distinctly humanitarian atmosphere. I have long been convinced that the successful business man, whether he be in a, large way or a small way, needs some cpr-i rective, some safety valve, some' definite means of escape into the larger life of the higher world, and I know of nothing betxer in this connection than to decide to de,vote to humanitarian work •a definite share of our growing income. The larger the income, the larger the: share." ( :, Sir William put into practice hig words by increasing his donation to the institution from £1,000 to £1,250.