THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JULY 18,1885.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7383, 18 July 1885, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, JULY 18,1885.

» The Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bill, which is now under consideration of Parliament, deals with a large question, which demands great attention, and urgently calls for settlement in some satisfactory form. Whether the way in which Government propose to : solve the difficulties connected with it I is however very doubtful, to say the least. For our own part we do not think it will, and believe that it will only make matters worse. In the first ; place, they have not had time to think the matter out, and reduce its details into such practical form as to secure for their measure the approval and sympathy of the country. Of this the diversified and generally adverse criticism which it has elicited in the House is a sure sign. During the recess the Colonial Secretary did, it is true, put himself to considerable trouble to visit a large number of the hospitals and charitable institutions in the several parts of the colony, and collected a large amount of information as to their sources of income and the nature of their management. In this way he became aware of the inconsistencies of the existing system; and, by the excessive cost of its administration at some places as compared with others, had the necessity of a uniform principle for regulating the dispensing of public charity forced on his notice. But he has evidently not had sufficient leisure to evolve out of all the conflicting elements a system which, by its order, simplicity, and effectiveness, might be expected to commend itself to the general community. It would have shown much more wisdom on the part of the Ministry if they had reserved this subject for another year, and patiently elaborated a scheme commensurate with the difficulties, instead of the complex and ill-digested measure which is now puzzling the brains of members.

The Government have in this matter committed the blunder which is usually the concomitant of hasty action— namely, that of attempting too much. To attempt to provide in one Act for the management of public hospitals and of charitable institutions, and for the distribution of charitable aid, is far from being a wise effort. The folly of it, moreover, is intensified by the proposal to throw the responsibility of dealing with these three branches of the question on one and the same Board in the respective districts. A very little reflection would have sufficed to show the Ministry that comparatively few men in the colony could spare the time required for properly attending to the duties which would be thus imposed on them. The very onerousness of the work would deter most men from undertaking it. The consequence would therefore be that very soon the scheme would either have to be abandoned from want of administrators, or that, to secure its administration, the members of the several Boards weuld have to be paid. The country is, however, in that state in which it cannot afford to contemplate either of these alternatives with satisfaction. Hospitals and charitable

institutions, and the dispensing of charitable aid must, of course, in the interests of the country and of humanity be all attended to. But, if men able and willing to attend to them all cannot be found, and the country, in its already burdened state, cannot afford to pay for men to attend to them, then a method of dealing with this wide question, different from that produced by the Government, must of necessity be devised. But the main objection to this Bill is the loose and uncertain principle on which the funds for meeting the multifarious demands which it creates are to be provided. The whole machinery is left dependent on chance. True, the usual device of subsidies is to be resorted to, to the limit of ten shillings to every pound of voluntary contributions, donations, and bequests, or grants from contributory local bodies. But who is to undertake to give anything approximating to certainty to those primary sources of revenue 1 Who can rely on contributions, or even secure the labour indispensable to the obtaining of regular subscriptions? The very toil which this implies would utterly destroy it as a reliable source of income; and it is unnecessary to say that donations and bequests are still more uncertain. And yet this is what Sir Julius Vogel would call an assured finance! We venture to say that a more clumsy and ill-devised scheme was never presented by any Ministry; and should it, even with the amendments which Sir Julius Vogel has promised to make on it, become law, it will before a year is over be demonstrated an utter failure.

It is to be hoped, however, for the credit of the Legislature that the Bill will not be allowed to have a place in the Statute Book of the colony. The express aim of the measure is, under the guise of local government, which the people are supposed to be madly eager for, to relieve the General Government of the most troublesome part of their administrative duties. It is also meant to serve, in a covert way, this other end : that, as the Government are afraid to tax the people further, they may get them committed in this way to tax themselves, and so relieve, to a large extent, the general revenue of the demands now made on it. The Government, however, will very soon discover, if they have not already been made aware of it, that the people are not so easily imposed on as they imagine. They will soon be given to understand that the people expect something very different from them than the casting upon the country raw and unworkable measures, under the pretence of conferring on it the boon of a liberal legislation. The country is sick of shams, and is wearying for some honest Government that, instead of dazzling it with a delusive display, will confer on it the benefit of devising measures which will cure the evils it groans under, and place all its institutions on a sounder and more satisfactory footing.