The Case of Mrs Corbett

Southland Times, Issue 11841, 15 September 1891, Page 3

The Case of Mrs Corbett

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — In the case of Mrs Corbett, who was brought before the Invercargill Court last Monday, there is the strongest condemnation of the management of the Old Men'a Home that could well be given against it. | The case has been fully reported in the papers and needs no repetition from me, excepting to say that the poor woman was taken to the police as a destitute person, and was provided for by them for a night, afterwards sent to the Home by the police to ask for temporary admittance until her case could be inquired into. But admittance or assistance was denied her (as was shown when the woman was again before the Court on 'Tuesday) and she was sent to wander about the country to seek food and shelter where she could get them, until she was again found wandering about at midnight, several days after, and was taken in^ hand by the police, and finally brought before the Court as describee?, when it was actually proposed to send her to gaol as the only means of providing temporarily for her whilst inquiries were being made into her case. Well may one ask what in the name of all that is reasonable is that establishment on the flat for ? It has cost the ratepayers between L2OOO and L3OOO to build and furnish, and is costing no one knows how much to maintain, as no statement of expenditure has ever been made public, except once that I remember to have seen. I ask again what it is for if a poor destitute being is 'to be turned away from its door as this woman was. This blest abode of a few is well provided with psalm-singing, soul-saving officials, but there is no one there it appears with authority to perform the work of a true Samaritan. This poor woman might have gone and destroyed herself, in her half demented condition, for all the good that that fraud upon ratepayers, known as the "Home" is to such as her. The ratepayers of this district are contributing several thousand pounds a year for the support of the destitute, and yet these very destitute people are driven away from the very place that has been established for them, or if not what, once more, has it been established for. I suppose, if the truth must be told, it has been established for the benefit of a select few, who can obtain admittance to it by a process that would do no credit to anybody to inquire into. Nor* is it worth a" moment's trouble to inquire on what principles the place is professedly conducted. It stands there as a high and costly mistake, and a failure, both as regards construction and management, to serve the purpose such a place should serve — viz., a refuge for the truly destitute, and it should be conducted in such a way that none but the truly destitute) would ever seek a home in it — either temporary or permanent. It is on these lines that poor houses are conducted in the Old Country, after long years of experience, and all whose needs compel them to ask admittance can get it without haviDg first to obtain the consent of a lot of fussy people who aie professing to exercise due caution to prevent the ratepayers money from being unworthily bestowed, whilst at the same time they are squandering their money in providing a sumptuous living and housing for a few — thereby creating a temptation to impose — and sending the rest empty away. This white elephant establishment is conducted on the same lines as a privately-endowed charity, and admittance to it has to be obtained hi very much the same way. It is a cheat and a delusion as now conducted, I mean the

principles on which it is run,noi the personal management. It cheats ratepayers out of their money for a purpose it does not fulfil, and it is a delusion for those needing the assistance such an establishment is supposed to afford to expect to obtain it there. It is a preposterous thing that a small body of irresponsible men should be the sole arbiters as to who should or should not receive relief at an establishment supported entirely by taxation. It was simply scandalous that this woman, who for the time being was in a most forlorn condition, and who was sent there by the police to ask for what anyone in similar circumstances has every right to get, notwithstanding these gentlemen's preposterous notions of discrimination, should have been refused admittance. The climax was reached when a Justice of the Peace, in adjudicating on the case, proposed to send her to gaol for board and lodgings — not that she had done anything amiss, but because there was no other way out of the difficulty — instead of sending her in charge of a policeman with peremptory orders to take her in and supply her with that which the people's taxes had provided for such cases. That is what the worthy J. P. ought to have done, and the people would have applauded him for it. I hope he will know how to act in similar cases in future. I maintain that an order from a J.P. or a sergeant of police should be quite sufficient for those conservators of the public interest to act on. — I am, &c ., T. Buxto.v. 11th Sept., 1891. [Our correspondent will notice that we have deleted an expression or two, which, ■while not quite relevant to his main argument, partially obscured the point of the sentences of which they formed part. He writes strongly, and with a pretty free hand, but as he puts his proper name to his letter he is entitled to, and hag been accorded, more latitude than an anonymous writer would be allowed. — Ed.]