INSTITUTION MANAGEMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14736, 15 July 1908, Page 3

INSTITUTION MANAGEMENT.

THE CRITICISM OF THE SAMARITAN HOME. DISCUSSION BY THE TRUSTEES. At a recent conference of representatives of Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards in Wellington, two Christchurch representatives expressed some very strong opinions concerning the utility of the Samaritan Homo and the desirableness of its being maintained as a separate institution instead of being placed under the care of the Charitable Aid Board. The matter was mentioned yesterday at a mooting of_ the trustees of. tho Homo, Mr V. H. Cooper reporting that the conference had carried a motion affirming the desirableness of maintaining the Home as a separate institution. Two of his colleagues from Ghristchurch (Messrs B. P. Manhiro and G. Payling) had made strictures upon tho institution. Clauses proposing that the chairman should be elected for three years and should be paid a salary of £2OO a year, he had opposed, and they had been thrown out.

The chairman (Mr C. Hastings Bridge) said that his reply to the statements of Messrs Manhiro and Payling had been, published in the " Lyttelton Times" and the "Dominion" in Wellington. He could not understand how such strictures could be made by the. chairman of a Board which sent inmates to the institution and by a- member of the Samaritan Home Board. That was all he cared to say upon the matter.

Mr C. H. Winny made an explanation ill regard to the delay in providing a balance-sheet complained of by Mr Man hire. Mr Mauhire, lie said, could have obtained any information he wanted had he asked- for it. He thought Mr Manlike should sever his connection with the Home. Mr F. J. Board said that Mr Manhiro was prevented from being present at the meeting of the trustees that day by other x>ublic business. He did not want it to be thought Mr Manhirewas afraid 'to meet members of the Board

of Trustees. He himself was of. the opinion, he had previously expressed that the Charitable Aid Board should control the Samaritan Home. The Charitable Aid Board had not done its duty in regard to tho Home, thus necessitating a separate body of control, but the Charitable Aid Board should he made to do its duty. The Chairman said that there were cases in which special institutions could be better controlled by separate bodies than by tho Charitable Aid Board. Some years ago St Saviour's Guild approached the Charitable Aid Board for a grant to carry on a borne similar to the Samaritan Home, and a grant ws made of £IOO or £SOO. A joint committee of members of the; Guild and the Board was set up, but after a year or two the Charitable Aid Board withdrew from the undertaking, and it became necessary to get tho Government to agree to a separate institution. Mr Cooper "said he had yet to learn that the Charitable Aid Board could carry on the Home as well as the present trustees. Mr Manhire was not " any sort of a patent chairman," and there was no reason why he should be able to administer the affairs of the Home better than the present chairjniaii, who was more conversant with them.

Mr Winny said that for last year the average weekly cost of maintenance per inmate of the Home was only os lid, including cost of administration. The meeting then passed on toother business.