DISTRIBUTION OF CHARITABLE AID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13958, 18 July 1907, Page 3

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARITABLE AID

ATTITUDE OF THE. BENEVOLENT TRUSTEES. At yesterday's meeting- of tho Benevolent Trustees a letter was read from the secretary of tho Charitable Aid Board as follows:—

Referring to the deputation that waited upon you from the board to discuss the subject of tho distribution of charitable aid, and to your request that tho board's views shou'.d be put in writing, I now beg to comply with tho same.

The board desires the trustees to continue lo distribute aid withia Dur.odin and , suburbs, including Port Chftlmere, West Harbour, Bay Town'and Portobello, Peninsula, and Tomahawk Eoad Board districts.

Further, that tie trustees would be good enough to let the board have copies of any forms required, and also access to the booke used in outdoor relief matters, so as to get a knowledge of what has to bo provided. The secretary was instructed to write to tho board ae followe:—

Dear Sir,—l havo to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of tho Ist inst., and to inform you that the portion thereof deiiing with the distribution of charitable aid has received the earnest consideration of my trustees.

The OUgo Benevolent Institution, prior to "The Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1885," coming into force, had distributed charitable aid throughout tho province of Otago, and since the passing of that act and the incorporation of the institution as a separate institution tho trustees havo continued to distribute charitable aid throughout tlie whole of the Otago district, and, as, by section 5G of the act, all the powers and authorities of the District Board in respect of the management of the institution were, on the incorporation of tko institution as a separate institution, transferred to and vested in the trustees for the time being of the incorporated institution, my trustees are advised that it is their duty, as part of tho management of the institution, to continue to distribute charitable aid throughout tho Otago district as heretofore, and that they Me not therefore in a position to fall in with your suggestion that they should confine their administr&tion to too particular districts mentioned in your letter unless empowered to do so by an older of the Supremo Court or by amended legislation. My trustees also desire me to point out how impracticable it would be for a body sitting in town to administer charitable aid to confine the distribution to caeca within certain boundaries, as most of the people in the country requiring. charitablo aid drift into the tovrn, and the iocal body there' could not rshiso aid iu proper cases on the ground that the applicant should havo applied in the county in which he or she was residing when the necessity for relief first arose.—l am, etc . "' A. Cldlee, Secretary!