FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

NZ Truth, Issue 968, 18 October 1924, Page 8

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

1 +■ Broken Outpourings Of A Prison Reclamation Society Practically Unrecognised. It comes i.s a cheering ray of brightness into a dull, drab, materialistic world to read of a band of people m comfortable circumstances devoting even a portion of their time and some of their money to the cause of attempting to reclaim some of life's broken earthenware. Such can be said of the efforts ,of the Auckland Dischax-ged Priso :ers' Aid Society, the annual meeting of which last week proclaimed to many the existence of such an oi-ganisation. The position was put m terse form by the chairman, Bishop Averill, when he said at the meeting: "It is evident that this work has not yet struck the imagination of the public, otherwise it would be given more support." The Society plies its calling at the Mt. Eden prison and its work is really of the spit-in-the-bcean nature judging by the figures m the report for the year. During the time under review there were discharged from the prison 1200 prisoners, and of this number nine out of every ten were interviewed, and, if necessary, given assistance. The expenditure on relief for the twelve months was £127, so that on the average each of the nine, out of ten interviewed and assisted would receive approximately two shillings and four pence. A tempting bonus for an idle and disorderly after "doing" two or three months! Certainly not nearly adequate to break the drought. But this is not the only way m which the Society goes about its work. It does not confine its attentions to the straggl"r from the straight and narrow. Take, for instance, the wife and the children of the man who is sont. m for a term not exceeding three months and for which the prisoner gets nothing m the way of remuneration. Here, surely, is an intensely humanitarian and Christian work, yet its perforiv.ance must come out of the £127 already mertioned. As was very truly pointed out at the meeting a little bit of human sympathy at the right moment was the means of pointing the ;"«rht road to many a fallen sinner, but what could be done on the princely sum of £127? Auckland boasts of its wealth m many ways, but from its teeming thousands comes only the insignificant sum of £127 for carrying on the open-minded, uplifting work which lies to the hand of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. It is not difficult to conjure up the sentiments which are likely to be uppermost m the man or woman 'who emerges from within the precincts of those dull grey walls, where it has been written: I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that littlT tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky. (t may have been a term of months, it may have been pf years; friends, mayhap, had long since turned their backs and the liberated prisoner feels it is immaterial to a heartless world whether he sinks or swims. The fact remains that it is a p-onument of thoughtlessness for the misfortunes of others, of a complete absence of charity and sympathy that the leading city of the Dominion raises only £127, plus a few old "shirts, and cast-off pants, to help along the hard road of life its sodial and moral derelicts.