INCORPORATION OF THE JUBILEE INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8881, 18 May 1892, Page 3

INCORPORATION OF THE JUBILEE INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.

TO THE EDITOR. Sill, Messrs. Atkin and Garland constituted a, deputation herein, 'and made remarks. Inter alia, the chairman ot tho Charitable Aid Board stated :—" He did not object to said incorporation if the Blind Institute did not afterwards call upon the Charitable Aid Board for assistance. No guarantee to that effect would be given. It was a colonial institute, and one for which ere long the Government would have had to provide. It was not fair that the liability should be merely local." M Prima facie this deliverance appears fair and just,, especially when we recognise the withdrawal of the uncharitable feeling which, it is alleged, some members of tho Institute have cherished and levelled against the chairman and members of the Charitable Aid Board. Now, if wo look beneath the surface, we note (A) the arrogant assumption of championship of the people's rights and yeoman defence of their coin. Is not Mr. Atkin aware that tho principal supporters of the Blind Institute are not the proletariat, but large ratepayers, and the saddling of colonial charges on local rates would hit them harder than any member of the said Board. The latter would be chastised with whips, the former with scorpions. Moreover, might not this large and influential class be actuated by self-interest herein, which would in this case be the quintessence of equity, (u) Mr. Atkin states that the " Blind Institute will give no guarantee," i.e., in the event of funds not being sufficient for the maintenance of the institution they will not call upon the Charitable Aid Board. While every member of the Blind Committee would deprecate such a possibility, not one of them could be so obsequious and foolish as to impale himself on the cold horn of this charity, although, as before intimated, they would themselves in this event be the greater sufferers, (c) I speak authoritatively in asserting that the Blind Institute, in its beneficent operations, is continuously engaged in qualifying the calamitous blind for the subsequent manly and womanly duties of life, and is perforce taking off instead of adding to our already heavy burden of rates. If my A B C is correct, then it follows as a logical sequence that the whole of the said official interview was superfluous, sound and fury signifying nothing," a waste of tune, a travesty of propriety, a strain on patience, and a forlorn hope against the incorporation of one of the noblest institutions in the colony, which in its gracious development is pre-eminently calculated to bring glory to God in the highest, peace and joy to the atllicted blind on earth, and goodwill to all classes of men, inclusive of the recalcitrant members of the Board for the distribution oi charitable aid, only let them not turn agaio to folly.—l am, etc., John Abbott. 83, Queen-street, Auckland, May 17. 1592.