CHARITABLE AID IN DUNEDIN.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2886, 10 December 1898, Page 3

CHARITABLE AID IN DUNEDIN.

i At this week's meeting of the Dunedin Charitable Aid Board, the Benevolent Trustees applied for £800 for the month of November, being an increase of £50 over their ordinary lequisition. Mr Green said there were at least six practical men present who had served on the Benevolent Trustees, and none of them could understand how it was that applicants for outdoor relief were more numerous at this season, when work was plentiful and the country settlers could not get men. There was greater demand at present on the Trustees than during any other time of the year. That was a positive fact, and could be proved. They had tried every means to stop it, and even had enlisted the police authorities. The wives of the applicants when they came foe relief always said their husbands were up country looking for work and unable to send them any money. Another thing he objected to, and that was supporting the families of men employed on Government co-operative works, both during summer and winter. The wives always said their husbands' time was broken through bad weather, and unless they received relief they would starve. Mr Begg said he knew for a fact that m some of the country districts it was impossible to obtain men or boys, and he had known of cases where farmers had to send 100 miles for boys to pick up fleeces. Mr Hazlett was of opinion that they should buy 100 acres of good ground at the laieri. He had often been out at the Institution m the mornings and seen 100 men hanging about either reading the paper or talking politics, and was sure that some of them, at any rate, would be better doing a little work. With a hundred acres of good ground they could have several paddocks, cows, etc., and the Benevolent Institution would' nearly pay. The chairman recognised that the expenditure had increased, but he felt sure that the Trustees had only consented to it with considerable reluctance. He and some others, having seen the difficulty m the matter, had resigned sooner than tackle the task. At the same time, considering the improvement that had taken place m both the town and country during the last year or two, he could not account for the increased expenditure.