THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1910. THE PHILANTHROPY OF THE WEALTHY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1910. THE PHILANTHROPY OF THE WEALTHY.

It is perhaps difficult, to the uninitiated, to realise how much the poor of r, community, in the complexity of our Twentieth Century social relationship, depend, for their very existence almost, upon the voluntary or forced donations of the richer classes ; and at this season of the year especially the aggregate of the monetary and other assistance so readily forthcoming from those who are in comfortable circumstances is so large that even those engaged in charitable distribution would scarcely credit it if it were unconformable by statistics. In the matter of gifts, indeed, the world at large has grown so accustomed to the exceptional endowments from time to time made by a Carnegie, a Rockefeller, or a Beit., that their . recurrence takes place without exciting amazement, though if people thought at all, the very magnitude of sums counted in millions of pounds sterling being transferred as if they were hundreds would give plenty of food for reflection. And it is doubtful whether many except those immediately concerned ever attempt to reckon up the enormous number of solid, though smaller, donations or bequests which, in the course of a year, are devoted by the charitable to the alleviation of suffering and.of poverty, or to the intellectual improvement of the race. In England and-Wales the expenditure in 1909 in poor relief alone amounted to fourteen millions of pounds sterling. The cost of old age pensions amounted to another eight millions, and a further twenty millions was applied to the education of the children of the masses. All these sums were expended by the State, and were the compulsory contributions, levied by taxation, of those who were possessed of • anything taxable. One might imagine that a community which had had over forty millions wrung; from them in one year for the benefit of their less fortunate brethren, would consider enough had been done in the cause of charity. And yet, what do we find? In London alone according to the latest issue of the Annual Charities Register an income of over ten millions is annually expended by charitable agencies, and if we allow as much more for . the rest of the country (which is under the estimate of many distinguished economists) we find that over sixty millions sterling is subscribed annually out of income, and independently of charitable bequests of capital, to be spent on behalf of the rich for the amelioration of the condition of the poor. The list of charitable bequests, which yearly makes its appearance, is more instructive still. Every year apparently sees a large increase in the amount of capital left for charitable uses, and it benefits them to a greater extent than income inasmuch as it goes on producing the latter with regularity and in perpetuity. Last year 75 testators in England alone left between them four millions to charitable uses, and during the last four years 295 testators have devoted over sixteen millions of the capital of their estates, to such uses, i and other smaller bequests, too small to be specifically traced, probably account for at least another half million per annum. These figures only deal with the easily ascertainable charitable gifts. It will be apparent to any of our readers that their aggregate must be still more largely swelled by the constant, though secretly administered, benevolence of the well-to-do in a hundred silent ways ; and the happening of any sudden disaster calling for immediate and practical help is, as is well known, the signal lor an equally spontaneous additional burst of generosity ; so that we may consider that at no time is the philanthropic instinct either exhausted or exhaustible. The fact is, that mere and more, as the world progresses, those who have are prepared to acknowledge and carry out the responsibility accruing to them by reason of their possessions, by allocating, to those who have not, some fair proportion of their abundance; and if it be true, as has often been alleged, that in no age has money been more easily or quickly made than in that in which we Hive, it is assuredly also

I true that in no age since the world began has there been such well organised giving of it away for the benefit of the less fortunate of mankind. Apart from the giving of funds for merely charitable purposes, the past century has had to record the sinking by wealthy men of enormous sums for the. promotion of higher education. One only has to instance the celebrated Rhodes bequest, the numerous American Universities, and the Carnegie libraries to recall some of the more noteworthy of these aids to the pursuit of intellectual knowledge, and the. friendly rivalry of millionaires in this direction has been emulated in all countries. The j # philanthropic or generously disposed rich are in fact a very great asset to any country, and one not' lightly to be looked upon as only existing to " cat away the subs; mce of the poor;" and though Nr. Zealand is too young a country i > be able to sh -.v accumulated cha' .Lable capital on a. large scale, si. ? has in the co \rse' of her limited history produced many notable philanthropists, and will in all human probability produce many more. The year 1910 has been one of constantly increasing prosperity at this side of the world, and nowhere is the fact better demonstrated than in the ready response to each and every call for help at the hands .of its philanthropists. . We can only hope, as we wish, that 191 l may be similarly prosperous, as well to the giver of charity as to him who receives it.