CHARITABLE AID BOARD

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 14

CHARITABLE AID BOARD

The regular meeting of the Charitable Aid Board was held 1 on Thursday afternoon, there being present — Mr P. Miller (chairman), Messrs Hazlett, Hunter, Begg, Burnett, Barnes. Wills, Marlow, Sim, and T. Mackenzie M.H.R.

Requisitions were passed as follows: — Caversham Industrial School, for the quarter, £766 6s 4d; Te Oranga Home, Christchurch, £4 17s 6d ; Christchurch Re«eivin^ Home, £4- 17s 6d; Burnham Industrial School, £4 4s 6d ; and the Dunedin Female Refuge, matron, £6 10s.

The Secretary (Mr T. S. Graham) intimated that there was a credit from the Treasury for £134- 12s 9d, repayments for children in the Nelson, South Dunedin, and Caversham Industrial Schools to the 31st March last. — Received. £

The Secretary of the Benevolent Institution wrote that, the institution's estimate fcr the requirements was £8000. The £7500 received for the past year was short cf what was required by £200, and the trustees anticipated an increased demand for relief during the ensuing winter.

Mr Wills : They give no data at ali. \s to the last part of the letter, I do not think it is right at all.

Mr Mackenzie : I propose we give them the old grant, so that we may got some information.

Mr Wills seconded the motion. The Chairman: That is £7500. Mr Burnett said the trustees couid iiot dD with £7500. They were quite willing to take it, but Mr Clulee told them they oould not do with it. They were £200 short last year, and the board wanted figures to prove there would be more distzess this winter. They could only anticipate. He felt certain the distress was going to increase. There was quite a number of men being discharged from the Drainas?e Board works.

Mr Wills: Why should all these apply for charity immediately? Mr Marlow said as the trustees had shown they waere short by £200 last year, he thought the board should make it up £200 this year. He would be in favour of increasing the £7500 by that amount. Mr Mackenzie said that with the consent of his seconder he would make it £7700, and to this Mr Wills agreed. Mr Hazlett said it was just as broad as it was long. The board would have to pay the money. He had been one of the trustees, and had endeavoured to keep the expenditure in charitable aid down, but ho could not ko^p it down. If the board made the amount up another £100 the total would pay last year's arrears, and the trustees would have an additional £100 for this coming year.

Mr Burnett said they wanted their hands strengthened. There were those who would give anything away so long as it did not come out of their own pockets. This action would strengthen the hands of those on the trust.

Mr Mackenzie : We could meet the case with Mr Hazlett's suggestion. (To Mr Wills) : Do you agree to that?

Mr Wills : No. I think the anticipation is altogether groundless.

The Chairman: You think things are goina: to be better.

Mi- Wills : No ; but they are not going to bo any worse.

The motion for approving the £7700 was then carried, and the Benevolent Institution requisition for £700 for the month passed.

The Chairman mentioned that there was a recoTd on the table showing the amount of money claimed and drawn by the Benevolent Institution since 1896. This record showed that in 1896 the claim was £11,500, drawn £11,257 6s; 1897, claimed £10,500, drawn £9200; 1898, claimed £9000, drawn £9042 13s 9d; 1899, claimed £8000, drawn £7110; 1900, claimed £8000, drawn £7700; 1901, claimed £7300, drawn £7300; 1902, claimed £7500, drawn £7250; 1903, claimed £7750, drawn £7750; 1904, claimed £7500, drawn £7500;— total olaimed £77,050, drawn £74-,110. The claim for 1905 was £8000.

The Education Department submitted requisitions for the year for different institutions as follow: — Te Oranga Home, £19 10s ; Christchurch Receiving Home, £19 10s ; Burnham Industrial School, £16 18s ; Caversham Industrial School, £3080. Mr Mackenzie moved that they be agreed to, and that a request be made that the board have representation in the management of the Caversham Industrial School. Mr Sim seconded the motion. The Chairman said the Education Department, Wellington, had the custody of the whole matter. It said the board should have nothing to do with it, and that the department would govern the board. The Education Department, Wellington, was not suoh a clever lot as to be able to manage more than its own affairs. The subject referred to by Mr Mackenzie had been mentioned a thousand times since his (Mr Miller's) connection with the board. To allowed two members to be nominated by the board, and appointed two itself as a '©Board of Advioe to the Industrial School, which was just adding a fifth wheel to a coach. It (the Board of Advice) could not spend a penny unless it got authority from Wellington. Mr Mackenzie said there was a talk abotit going into the whole question, and this motion would let the people in Wellington know what the board's present ideas were. The Chairman said this £3080 was an increase from £2900— that was, £180 more. The question of both hospital and charitable aid was growing in the colony. Where it was going to stop goodness only knew. Whether it was the system or the management of the system it would be difficult to say It was then resolved to notify the Education Department that the board was strongly of opinion that the time had arrived when, seeing the board was contributing so large a sum to the Industrial School, it should have direct representation in its management. — The requisitions were approved. It was resolved to approve of the estimated annual requirements of St. Mary's Industrial School, Nelson (£526 10s. about the same as last year) and the South Dunedm Industrial School (£560, the average amount). Mr Wiils said he would like to know what the total of the amount they had nowgranted for indigent adults and children was. The Chairman: Close on £12.000. The claim of the Auckland Jubilee Institute for the Blind (£ls) was then approved.