THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1907. CHARITABLE AID.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13859, 23 March 1907, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1907. CHARITABLE AID.

It is possible that the practical effect of the resolution which was adopted, at the instance of Dr Batchelor, at the meeting of the Charitable Aid Board on Thursday, with the view of eliminating the causes of friction between representatives of tho town and country, may not be very great. Indeed, it is not unlikely that the discussion which look place on Dr Batchelor s proposal, and the speech which he himself made in support of it, may lead to the achievement of tho object he has in view more satisfactorily than the appointment of any committee, composed in equal proportions of town and country representatives, can bo hoped to do. From the point of view of Mr Mosiey and Mr Johnstone, each of them ,a prominent member of a. County Council, the cause of the discontent which we have from time to timeheard expressed in the country districts lies deeply rooted. It is," they tell us, to be found in the entire system under which charitable aid is administered in Otago. There can be 110 cure, they invite lis to believe, until each country district has the right to administer its own rates on behalf of its poor and sick. We see no reason to doubt that this conviction is largely shared by country residents throughout Otago. They have repeatedly been assured that the existing administration of charitable aid ig so operated that the

ratepayers in rural districts arc made to bear a portion of the burden which legitimately belongs to the urban property-owner. Wc have never been able to discover 'that there is any sufficient evidence to support the allegation that the trustees who are charged with the administration of charitable aid are in the. habit of discriminating against country applicants. Tho' presumption is, indeed, all the other way, and the return, admittedly incom' plete, which was laid before the Charitable Aid Board • this week suggests rather strongly that the city ratepayers are actually contributing towards the support of the indigent people in tho country. Moreover, it cannot be overlooked that even a completed return, under which the contributions of the various districts towards charitable aid and the disbursements in those districts in the shape of relief are minulc-ly analysed, will fail to give an absolutely reliable presentment of the facts. The city is notoriously the receptacle in large measure ot the flotsam- and jetsam of the country, and a certain proportion of the amount that is distributed annually to applicants' for relief in town undoubtedly represents expenditure on behalf of cases which really belong to the country. We cannot, therefore, believe that the ratepayers in rural districts would be in any real sense benefited if their local bodies were entrusted with the duty of administering their own charitable aid. As a. matter of fact, of course, the distributing authority in Dunedin does consult the local bodies, as far. as, in its opinion, it practically can with regard' to the administration of outdoor relief in their respective districts. But, as wo have said, the objection, which the country local bodies raise to the method at present employed in the administration of charitable aid is radical in it 3' character. They are rated for charitable aid purposes and they have 110 voice whatever in the distribution of the rates. It must be admitted that tho system is not one calculated to' promote a feeling of contentment on the part of the, ratepayers. And the dissatisfaction is intensified through the fact that between the local body levying and collecting the rates and the trust distributing the relief a buffer has been created in the form of the Charitable Aid Board. This body the members themselves have, Dr Brvtcholor observes, been wont to regard as possessed of no power and 110 influence—a kind of fifth 1 wheel to a coach. Dr Batchelor holds, however, that the members of the Board have in the past mistaken their functions, and that their responsibilities do not 'begin with the allocating of the contributions of local bodies or end with tho signing of cheques for the amounts of the requisitions of the distributing bodies. His opinion, evidently based upon some study of the Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, is that the Board has a right, if it thinks fit, to refuse funds as well as to supply them, and that it is its bounden duty to see that the funds it supplies are properly expended. It is not, however, clear from the law that the Board is entitled to exercise any effective checic upon the' expen- , diture of the separate institutions. Its only remedy, in case it considers the amount of a requisition excessive or otherwise unreasonable, is to appeal to the Colonial Secretary, who shall, thereupon direct an inquiry to be held before commissioners appointed for the purpose— a cumbrous process to which recourse would only be had in extreme cases; The view which' the majority of the members of the Board have been accustomed to take of its powerlessness to restrain expenditure is, therefore, we apprehend, much more nearly correct than tho view expressed by Dr Ba-tchelor. But it is not at all so certain that the country distrjets may not obtain redress, if they have a just cause of complaint, through the application of provisions of the A,ct which have probably escaped their notice. The Board is permitted by law to divide the district under its jurisdiction into subdivisions for the purpose of facilitating the work of levying and collecting contributions from the contributory local authorities and' also for the distribution of charitable aid. It is further cmpowered, if it thinks fit, to appoint any one or more local authorities in. its district, or in any subdivision of its district, to distribute or to - collect and distribute the charitable aid funds of the Board within the district under the jurisdiction of such local authority. These provisions of the law certainly seem to clothe the Board with the right, if it is so minded, to delegate to local authorities within the district as large an amount of local control as even Mr Mosley could desire; and it must be accounted as somewhat surprising that tho members of local bodies in the country districts who, it is to be gathered from Mr Mosley, have nursed for years a grievance against the trustees of the Benevolent Institution, have never made any effort to sccure, in the manner prescribed by the law, an, effective measure of control over the administration of their own charitable aid. It is evidently not contemplated by law that there shall be in hospital matters as in charitable aid administration any devolution of authority from the central organisation, and for this the sound reason exists that a multiplication of institutions for the treatment of tho sick would be inconsistent with the practice of due economy and would probably, in the long run, not be conducive to efficiency.