South Canterbury Times FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1892.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6752, 5 February 1892, Page 2

South Canterbury Times FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1892.

Home papers to hand by the ’Frisco mail, of dates to the middle of Dc cember, show that the advent of winter, with its added misery for the paupers of London, had roused the charitable of the great citynation to activity, and the papers contain notice after notice of meetings, addressc, lectures and so forth, on the subject of the poor, and of provision being made to ameliorate their lot. Talking, however, does no immediate practical good, though it may bo educating the well-to-do up to the mark of activity for some future time. The direct efforts made are sadly limited by lack of means ; those who are anxious to do something not having the money ; those who have the money not being anxious to do anything. One of the simplest of charities possible is the “night shelter,” where a dry floor and a fire are offered for nothing. Tins is an improvement on the railway arch or the doorstep, and tho few such shelters that have been provided are crowded, and hundreds have to be turned away some nights. One investigator, whose methods of inquiry into the condition of the poor have commended themselves to thinking people, Mr Charles Booth, has published a summary of statistical results which is surprising. He declares that four out of every ten persons who die in England over 65 years of age, die paupers ; and that the case of women only is still worse, “ the majority of Englishwomen at an extreme age are paupers.” And this, in respect of both sexes, except in a small proportion of cases is not due to their own fault, but simply to growing inability to earn a living. Mr Booth does not believe in any patchwork relief, and boldly asks for an unconditional old age pension of 5s a week, to begin at 65. He estimates tho cost at seventeen millions sterling per annum, of which three millions could be had from savings under the present poor law. Lord Salisbury, we are informed by a cablegram yesterday, does not favour old age pension proposals, from which we may infer that the subject has been a good deal discussed by the public and the Press since Mr Booth brought it into prominence in a definite shape. The Daily Chronicle says a 6d income tax would do ic, or a land tax of Is 4i in the £,, and agrees with Mr Booth that while an unconditional industrial^pension can be thus provided, a'national insurance scheme under which the worker must lay by for his old age, is utterly impracticable.

Great destitution prevails just now in parts of Melbourne. A cablegram yesterday stated that a thousand people are starving in Richmond, one of the suburbs. We learn from the Agc that, about ten days ago, a public meeting was held at Richmond to consider the best means of affording relief to the unemployed. It was stated that many of the suburbs were suffering from lack of employment, and most of the speakers attributed the distress to the stoppage of public works. The condition of Richmond, it is clear from the statements made, is very bad indeed, and resolutions were carried by the meeting as indications of what could be done to relieve the dis • tre:s. They would form a committee to receive subscriptions and d’sburse them in food and necessaries ; and they would urge the Minister of Public Works to start reproductive works to give employment. Similar meetings for similar purposes are reported on the same date from Footacray, and in the city itself. One painful feature of the Richmond meeting—a not uncommon feature of such occasions unfortunately—was the pitiful response made to an appeal for subscriptions on the spot. One would think that when people had been warmed to the sense of the gravity of the case they would show somelibecality, yet, though the meeting was “ well attended, ” and apparently by well-to-do people, the response, with promises, was only about £l4, —five loaves and a few fishes for thousands. There is great faith in miracle yet.