BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10265, 24 January 1895, Page 4

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.

The weekly meeting of the Benevolent Institution Trustees, held yesterday, was attended by Messrs R. CMsbolm (chairman), C. Haynes, Colin Allan, W. Brown, A. Solomon, J. Green, and H. (Jourley. A DEATH. The Secretary reported that Grace Foulk, aged 66, died in the institution during the week. THE QUESTION OP RENT. The Chairman said a week or two ago the Tnatter of office rent was referred to the treasurer and himsell to see what could be done inthe way of securing otherofnees or getting the rent of the present ones reduced. They had interviewed the agents of the present offices, who offered to reduce the rental from £1 to 12a 6d » week. The treasurer and himself recommended that the trustees accept the offer.^-The recommendation was agreed to. i PICNIC FOB. INMATES. ( The Chairman stated tuat the Union Steam | Ship Company had arranged to give the old people at the institution a picnic on Thurflday week. He had communicated with the manager of the Industrial School, who was going to send the boys to the picnic, and he hoped that as many of the trustees aB could make it convenient to be present would attend. THE EXPENDITURE ON OUTDOOR RELIEF. The Chairman, referring to the allowances given to applicants for outdoor relief, said, after looking over a few of the orders for groceries obtained by the applicants the impreffi sion was forced upon his mind that the amounts that they received were very badly expended indeed, and that there was great lack of economy and tact in the way the amounts were expended. At last meeting the matter was referred to him to look into and report. What struck him in looking over the orders was the immense quantities of such articles as sugar, butter, bread, and candles, while flour, oatmeal, potatoes, and rice were rarely asked for. In 47 orders tbat he had examined the trustees would be Btruck with the tremendous quantity of sugar that was consumed or asked for by the applicants for outdoor relief, and in many cases these articles were out of all proportion to other articles that were obtained. | Out of the 47 cases, with the exception of 12, there were no orders for potatoes, flour, and oatmeal. In other cases, with one exception, there waa an immense quantity of sugar got. While the orders showed an immense quantity of sugar they did not show anything like the actual amount that was obtained in many case?, because applicants sometimes got part of the order fulfilled at one time and obtained a memorandum frnm thesrocer of the balance which remained, but noue of these memoranda came to the trustees' office. Hepro-ceeded-to refer to the case of a woman with oue child who got an allowance of 12s Bd for five weeks. She got 31b of tea. 311b of sugar, 51b of butter, eight loaves of bread, and 31b of candles.

It wai pointed out by two or three of the trustees that there must be some mistake about the case, and Mr Haynes made a calculation which showed that although the allowance of the woman only came to 12s 6d the value of the goods enumerated amounted to 19s Id. ■ The Ch«ikjian subsequently stated that a mistake had been made in the case owing to two women having the same name. The woman who got the articles which had been referred to was a woman with rive children, aad got an allowance of 7s 6d per week.

Mr Solomon suggested that the matter should be referred to the Finance Committee to make exhaustive inquiries aud produce reliable figure* with reference to it. He said when the chairman apoke last week about this matter the first thing that struck him was what an extraordinary thing it was that poor people who had orders for groceries should not get large quantities of potatoes. On Tuesday morning, however, he met an old Irishwoman, who was getting relief from the institution, and he asked her to tell him what was the reason. She said the explanation was easy enough. The contractor only supplied 261b of potatoes for Is, and she could get 401b for Is. She was a poor woman and she was obliged to be careful and make the money go as far as she could. He then asked her why she did not get flour, and she replied: " Glory be to God! What would Ido with flour? I have bread and potatoes. I cannot afford to make puddings and cakes, and I have uo need for the smallest quantity of flour." Now he submitted that there might possibly be Borne similar exnlanation iv connection with all these orders. He would therefore move in the direction he bad already indicated.

Mr Goukley seconded the motion. In'doing so he said there was some talk about the tobacco used at the institution, aud the old men there ware somewhat uneasy about the probability of their tobacco being taken from them Now he thought that the quantity of tobacco the men got was often too small for smokers. At the same time, so long as they could do with the quantity they got he had no cause of complaint. He, however, hoped that the committee would not meddle with the men's tobacco.

The Chairman said the position he took up was this: that if it could be shown that out of the allowances applicants got the quantities of sugar, bread, butter, tea, and candles were unreasonable in proportion to the size 1 of their families, then the allowances should be curtailed. Mr Solomon's motion was then put and carried. BELIEF CASES. About 40 applications for relief were dealt with.