CHARITABLE AID.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10593, 28 February 1895, Page 4

CHARITABLE AID.

The statement of the Chairman of the Charitable Aid' Board with regard to the report of the Royal Commission upon the administration of that body cannot be regarded as entirely satisfactory. Mr Westenra has made a very admirable defence for the Board, but he has failed to shake any of the Commissioners’ conclusions, and we are still left face to face with an array of rather unpleasant facts. We are nob inclined to cavil at the office expenditure, and it would be ridiculous to demand that the Secretary of the Board should accept leas for his services than they would command in any responsible position of equal importance; but we believe that enough might be saved by a rearrangement of the staff to provide the salary of the female inspector recommended by the Commissioners and ourselves. The Chairman of the Board still holds to the idea that three pence a day is “ sufficient to sustain the life” of an able-bodied man. We confess that we have never indulged in along course of penny meals, , but it seems to us that it would be cheaper in the long run, to maintain this “able-bodied man” in a tolerable state of health than to tax his powers of endurance by periods of semi-starvation. It is gratifying to learn that the sanitary condition of the Armagh Street Depot has been improved since the visit of the Commissioners—that seems to be, so far, the only result of the recent agitation—but we cannot understand why the Board should hesitate for a moment to submit the applicants for admission to a process, if required, of fumigation and bathing. Surely filth is not a necessary accompaniment of poverty. Mr Westenra evidently recognises the extravagance of spending some 132000 a year among the landlords of Christchurch for the provision of very inadequate shelter for the recipients of relief, and we trust that he swill be able to suggest some means by which this money maybe turned toy better account. In the meantime, it'will be well for the electors to press-for a reform of the charitable aid system, which will remove the abuses that have been exposed by the Royal Commission and practically admitted., hy-the Chairman of the local Board.