ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 989, 20 June 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

HOW TO AVOID A COLONIAL POOR LAW. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —In this colony I observe a strong tendency towards following out the ancient customs of our mother land. Since the institution of the county system it has devolved upon County Councils to vote mone3 ? s to the poor from a certain fund set apart for the purpose. This, sir, is hut a modification of the Poor Law system of Great Britain. That there are cases which require assistance, there is not the least doubt, and while such evils exist in this infant colony is it not the duty of the Legislature to enact such laws as will mitigate —if not altogether prevent us from falling into—a Poor Law system which already enslaves and degrades so many millions of our fellow countrymen. It is said that wages must come down in a few years at the most, and, in a colony so highly taxed as New Zealand, the consequence must be the extreme poverty of the working man. In due course a Board of Guardians will be instituted, and we will have the Poor Law taking the laborer by the hand in early manhood, leadingliim along through life, and helping him at every turn. And what will be the result of all this fatherly care? A pauper's grave for him, and a heavy poor-rate for the Colony. Even under our incipient Gratuitous Aid Act and benevolent associations, the assistance rendered is very often abused, the subject becoming limp and helpless, and losing all energy and activity. A much better and wiser thing would be to supply tlio applicant with work at fair wages, But there is a way out of the dilemma which has recently been suggested for Great Britain, by a writer in the Nineteenth Century, viz., to pass a law forcing parents to insure the lives of their children after a certain age. In this Colony it would be as well to make the the enactment to comprehend the entire adult population, the insurances to be effected in proportion to the health, age, and wages earned of the subject. The insurances accruing from intestates, should be vested in a Colonial Trades Institute Fund, to provide suitable homes, schools, and workshops, where the children of working men can obtain an education and a trade free of expense, and where orphan children and aged persons would be properly cared for, instead of becoming the burden of the State, at the expense of the public. In conclusion, I would ask our legislators to consider this matter carefully to the end, that we may become and remain a free people. —lam, &c., A Cosmopolitan.