HOUND THE CORNERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 7490, 30 May 1885, Page 4

HOUND THE CORNERS.

(From the Nevj Finland Mail, May 22) The Young Men’s Christian Association has done, and is doing, much good work. Many stray waifs, hurrying to are caught in ita meshes, and the members generally are characterised by a zeal, earnestness, and liberality in the prosecution of their work that is in the highest degree creditable to them. Where there is so much “go” and resolution, it is not surprising that boundaries are o’erleaped occasionally* and that extravagant propositions find their way to the front. One of these, remarkable in its way, was advanced at a recent meeting of the Association by a Mr Webb. His burning desire to bring all within the fold of the Association led him to urge upon members to not only open their arras, but the doors of their domestic recesses to all young men coming to the colony. From his remarks we infer that Mr Webb meant to open doors as an inducement to young mento join the Association, and there is little doubt but that many converts would be found ready to give their hearty adhesion on those terms. Such is the depravity of human nature —yea, even Christian human nature—that a conscription of the kind would meet with the heartiest responses, for the sake of the probable material benefits to be derived from it. But the spiritual sincerity of those engaged would be open to grave doubt. And if the motives of the acceptors were not of the purest, it might go mighty hard with the hosts. It is a ticklish process, that of taking in strangers, excepting upon unimpeachable references. “ The good young man who died ” is not, as a rule, to be often found in emigrant vessels; more of “the totherest” sort may be looked for in such situations; fellows with their eye teeth quite cut; who know one end of a billiard cue from the other, and can lift their little finger in more ways than one. Shortly, the “Heathen Chinee ” is nothing, in his wiles, to some of the scapegraces that find their way “across the herring pond,” and, subsequently, their level in these fair colonies. Capital colonists many of them make, too, when they have fairly settled down, after roughing it awhile, and getting their excrescences smoothed a bit. But to risk picking up one of these on his first arriving—even though for the cause of the Young Men’s Christian Association—and popping him into a dovecote would be mighty rough upon the inmates of the cote. No, no, far better give young men their head when they first arrive here, and let them by their actions show the stuff they are made of. If that stuff is good, they are tolerably certain to fall upon their feet, and of their own accord, if so inclined, into the arms of some religious denomination or another j and if the stuff is had, they would be very seriously out of place in an honest man’s family circle. Indiscriminate charity doling—l won’t call it benevolence —is a serious mistake, and where the emotions.are brought into play it has to be rigorously guarded against. And under no conditions is more circumspection demanded, even to the extent of apparent hard-hearted-ness, than those of a public body entrusted with the administrat on of eleemosynary aid. Not soft-hearted, but real hard-headed men are demanded for the situation; men, however, with a keen sense of justice and a compassionate side to their nature. And will anyone who knows the man dare say that the Rev. Mr West has not both of these, or that he has not proved a most effective member of the Benevolent Society ? First and last his sound common sense and broad sympathies have been of the utmost service to the society. One of its most valued members is Rev. Mr West, of the Woodward-street Church, and those who know him the more thoroughly can best bear out this assertion of mine. Why, then, the brutal attack upon the man by a writer of more impulse than brains, whoever he may be. I must take exception to that attack on Mr West in the Evening Boat. Unprejudiced minds must side with Mr West in the quarrel. Unhappily, imposture is rife, even in this sparsely-populated colony. There are loafers and rascals, mostly the outcome of drunkenness, enough and to spare, and to no persons are they more cognisant than to members of benevolent societies. Mr West “spotted” one when he entered his protest against the expenditure, upon such an object, of the funds entrusted to them by the public. An apparently loafing, worthless husband was in the way, and the occasion called for a protest, and a strong one, too. Mr West is to be commended for the stand he took. There was plenty of suaviter in modo at the meeting to temper his fortiter in re, A margin of LOO is rather wide, even in the ruling of a country R.M., and jet such a one has been placed on record in connection with that scabby Sheep Act case in Wanganui a short time ago. The Act provides a penalty of not less than LlO and not more than LIOO, and, although the proceedings were in a measure tentative, the Wanganui R.M. mulcted in the larger amount, or, at least, ruled for it. And then, funny to relate, the solicitor for the prosecution assumed a deprecatory attitude, and vowed they didn’t want to bleed the poor devil to that degree; that the penalty as provided by the Act was exceedingly elastic ; anything, in fact, from LlO to LIOO. Whereupon his sapiency on the Bench jumped to the other extreme, and went for the lesser amount, I have no doubt but the last thought was.better than the first, and would strongly recommend the Magistrate to sleep upon his decisions in future before delivering them. I don’t believe in crushing a broken reed, The loss of the children, the horror of the circumstances, will he a life-long source of reproach and bitter sorrow to the parents, but how can parents be so thoughtless as, what amounts in reality, to place their children jn a position of deadly peril ? How (compact tively) many little helpless creatures have, been burnt to death during the last year or two \ left in a room with a fire and the door shpt; no escape for them, and the result sipkening ! I do hope the last has been heard of this kind of shocking carelessness. When such events occur they are blazoned abroad by the Press, from one end of the colony to the other; every one should be cognisant of them, and every .one with children entrusted to their keeping should be on their guard. What man Is there of the slightest humanity who does not wish for the preservation of peace, and that England and Russia may settle their differences by arbitration? We have got behind the scenes a little more lately, and are more qualified to judge than we were of the character of the dispute, and it must be conceded that, for once, the English Premier is doing right with his foreign policy in trying to avoid! extreme measures. To fight over a strip of country, a veritable no man’s land, the abode of lawlessness and ultra wickedness, would be a piece of gross folly on the part of Russia and England, and as Russia has been ; doing good service in the way of evolving order out of chaos in that region, some concessions may be granted her without any loss of honor or lessening of prestige on England’s part. But there is crying need for a settlement of the boundary question, and that once accomplished there must be no more concessions to Russia. Britain will have to hold her own. I have to strongly recommend the Directors of the Colonial Insurance Cojnpany to place the very Rev. MrOgg on the directory the first favorable opportunity. He will then give an admiring public an edifying illustration of the truth of the old adage about circumstanees altering cases.

u Almoners of the Government,” “ Slave of a bad system,” very good ways of putting it indeed, and exactly describing the position. For the first time, perhaps, the public really understand upon what basis the Benevolent Society is working, and are now aware that it, the public, is nob such a lordly provider of alms as jt, or some people, might have imagined. The public really contributes very little indeed towards the relief of the indigent poor of the City of Wellington ; whilst it is the Government who really does the substantial forking out. ’Xis tho public purse of the tolony that pays for this, and, whilst I thoroughly endorse the principle, deeming it better'that the Government should pay for all, in the way of charitable aid, and entrust the administration to competent and impartial Boards, it should be a sine qua non of the arrangement that the Boards are thoroughly competent, and above the influences of fear and favor. It does not, however, seem that this is quite the case. Members of the Benevolent Society displayed a decided funk, on Tuesday, as to what would be said of them i by Mrs. Grundy, in the event of their doing so- * and-so, whilst one of them was so shaky in the , knees as to suggest the exclusion of the Press :

from their meetings, in order that the thing might be carried on in a proper hole-and-corner fashion, and no one, but members of the Board, be a bit the wiser. But this argument will not hold water for one moment. Any member of the Committee of the Benevolent Society, who has not the courage of his convictions, is utterly un£t for the position. He has accepted a solemn trust, and he must discharge that trust faithfully or resign, like a man, and make room for some one else who will. And in the discharge of that trust the Committee must absolutely be above that emotional, untrustworthy public opinion, which is never judicial, and generally prejudicial, and unjust. As it is it seems to me that, on account of weakness of back bone, the Committee is in peril of being controlled by any sturdy beggar who knows how to prefer his claim, for fear they should lose popularity if they did otherwise. And again, an exceedingly fallacious argument was advanced at the meeting as to the necessity of introducing sympathy into the Committee meetings. Now, I maintain that sympathy is entirely out of place there. What is demanded is entirely cold-blooded administration. Plainly put, the issue is simply —ls, or are, this, or these, cases deserving ? People who apply for charitable relief generally do so through the Relieving Officer, and occasionally through one or the other of members of the Committee. The purpose of sympathy will be served, and amply served, if the person applied to does the sympathising part of the business ; the council, before whom the case is brought, should be as iron and steel when engaged in impartial investigation. A nice bit of sophistry was also advanced by J another of the members when he urged the claim of six loafers against one honest man. The odds, dear friend, are too heavy altogether, Not six to one, oh, man of weak knees, but level betting. Better that one loafer should be relieved, than one deserving applicant be overlooked. More than that would convert your Committee into a perfect hot bed of imposture. As for the Rev. Mr West’s attitude at Tuesday’s meeting, again was exemplified the old adage about “ wisdom crying aloud in the street,” &c. And his confreres, the Committee? Well, they stand within the category of “ Nice People” about whom somethingwiil be found ■ in another part of this issue, 1 Chance visitor to the Cemetery meets a gravedigger with a spade in each hand. The gravedigger : “ Good-day, Mr—” Visitor, “Good-day, dull weather this ; lot of people dying off.’’ Gravedigger, in moralising vein : “ May be, but they don’t come this way; spec ; they go over the other side,” indicating by jerk of thumb burial place of rival denomination. “ Let’s see; why I’ve only had four this week, while this time last year a whole dose came in. If we don’t look sharp we shan’t come up to the average this year. The fact is, there is so many of these spiritualist and freethinking chaps that hasn’t got a parson of their own, and so they gets the Church of England man to shove ’em under. That’s how ’tis, I believe. However, wo must live in hope,” Visitor : “ Nothing like keeping up your pecker, eh?” Gravedigger : “ That’s so. We’ll gather ’em in by-and-bye.” Visitor hooked it in alarm. Asmodeus,