The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1904. WOMEN AND CHARITABLE AID.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXII, Issue 13603, 24 November 1904, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1904. WOMEN AND CHARITABLE AID.

The little agitation inspired by certain members of the Charitable Aid Board does not seem to have affected the judgment of tho contributing local bodies* for the throe good women who were members o£ the Board last year have all been re-elect-ed. Tho meeting of the City Council last night, indeed, produced wine very striking tributes to the excellence of the work done by Mrs Wells and Mrs Henderson,, ana it its quite clear that this contributing body, at any rate, has no fear that women reprefientatives will lead the Board into undue extravagance. It is in general, wo should say, a stupid assumption that women ura less economical than men in the administration of public or private funds. Men, it has been shown again, and again, shrink from too closely investigating tho stories of distressed! applicants and thoir circumstance®, and are for tho most part content to rely on official representations. But a move important problem has arisen in North Canterbury. The conservatism of tho local Charitable Aid Board ha® produced and is producing results which no citizen can think other than deplorable. The system has been wrong. Aid has been doled out .at first to meet temporary distress, but tha same applicant® have been allowed to appear year after year, until the second and even, wo arc told, the third generation of a family have been on the Board’s books. This permanent relief is entirely foreign to the intention of the system, bub it has grown to be a very oerioufl feature. It is, obviously wrong in a young' country like this, and we have been surprised and shocked by the attitude of some members of the Board, who have persistently opposed! movements intended to effect a. reform, and even proposals for an inquiry into the working of the system. It is to the credit of the women members that they have endeavoured to find out why and where the system is bad, and! we read the action of the City Council now as a clear indication that it is not satisfied) to have tho funds it contributes expended in the same way, year after year, without any attempt at a real solution of tho poverty problem. The Board does its beat to save the rates* we know, bub saving’ the rates is not wisdom it it means the creation of a permanent pauper class* however small, in a colony like this, capable of supporting an enormously larger population in, comfort. The State itself, we think, will ultimately have to take over the sup ends ion of labour farms and general relief works, but the local administrative bodies should) be quite capable of establishing institutions, market gardens, laundries and the" like, where the Recipients of aid might actually earn the money they received. It is in, this direction that the women members of the Board are working, and we have no doubt that if the Boards were elected on a popular franchise the reform would soon be carried out. Mr Witty endeavoured to obtain front the Selwyn County Council yesterday an expression of opinion in favotu* of tho popular election of Hospital and! Charitable Aid Boards, but the idea, apparently, found no sympathy. It was left for Mr Gough to make the only positive objection. Ho thinks, or says ho thinks, that if the people had the franchise only women would be elected. We do not know that such a development would be particularly deplorable. • The electors could bo trusted to safeguard their own interests, and if tho administration should be unsatisfactory they would not be long in changing their representative-*;. The Hon W. Hall-Jonea is under a promise to look into the question of tho constitution of Hospital Boards and Charitable Aid Board® during the recess, and we hope that a democratic measure on the subject will bo introduced early next session.