The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE McCARTHY CASE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13635, 1 July 1908, Page 4

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE McCARTHY CASE.

We regret, as we know that the Mayor regieuC the. necessity which has arisen for him to make, and for us to publish, the statement that he gave to the Charitable Aid Board yesterday. It is not a pleasant thing to have the duty of exposing the frailties or the past misdeeds of any person, bub the unpleasantness is intensified tenfold when one has to deal 1 , wish sin individual so physically handicapped' as McCarthy is. Whatever he may still be, yet he lemnins, horn his : sightlew condition, an object for commiseration and a proper subject for JJie care of the community. That care he will receive' whether the springs of private benevolence are dried up or not by the revelation or ms past career or his present mode of life. He cannot, and will i not, be allowed to die of neglect and Starvation merely because he is not the heroically independent victim of misfor- • time that some jll-balanced writers in the [ Press have described him. The resources of the charitable,aid system,.either' here or wherever he may properly belong to, stand between him and want, should the * generosity of the public wither lip before the pitiable past which has been revealed •» the investigation of his story. There need be «o fear therefore that his requirements will v not be attended to.' Society has provided the automatic ma- ' chinery for such cases as his. It is quite another matter, however, that the sympathy of the public should be excited by a grossly perverted account of his .misfortunes, and that a public man like the Mayor should be made a party to the deception if he continued to receive donations sent in by the benevolently inclined. Mr Craigie has already been misrepre- , sented , by the Chnstchnreh " Press " as | having consented to receive subsciiptions | when the fact was that these gifts were cent, to him entirely unsolicited. Had he not in this way become a sort of trustee for the donors, seveial of whom relied upon him to piotect their henevplence from imposition, • he might'have done ■ as the other members', of the Charitable Aid Board aid yesterday, " and left the <rho/e case «o those who were responsible fo» the fabrications J which worked upon the generous N impulses of the piovmce. But bad the chairman br v any * other mem- » ber been' the„ recipient .ot-j subscriptions erven good faith that the.published accounts of the case were genuine and reliable, they would have been wanting in their duty if they had'not taken steps, as jifr Craigie did, to satisfy themselves i that they -were genuine, and disclosed the information which came 'into his possession. Mr Craigie'e position was precisely that which Mr Talbot quite rightly laid down for the newspapers—that they should look closer into such cases before publishing them. As far as the " I'itnaru Herald" is' concerned, neither can' the public accuse us of having misled them nor can the unfortunate victim of the affair blame us for the tnwelcome publicity that has been tlirust upon him. As Mr Craigie said yesterday,. our only share in the whole'business was' the publication at the request, of the Marine Band of a notice of its intention to give a performance in aid. of a case of destitution described by the Bandi On making enquiries with a view'to assisting the good intentions of the Band, we soon learned enough to deter us from using whatever influence we may have with the public in the promotion of subscription lists, so that Mr Talbot will see, that Lis little homily to, the Press might have been particularly directed to the quarters wlide its necessity- has shown itself., <.Had tJie , chairman's -very elementary^precautlin ' been 1 observed, the Mayor would hot have, * , been' put to the, unpleasant task he; had, to, undertake yesterday, and' thajpoor blind , man 'would not ' have' had a searchlight

thrown upon" 1 his history. More than that, the incalculable injury which h.u been done to the cause of pure benevolence would have been avoided. .'%. community resents no injury so uiue'4 as one inflicted upon its generous imp'Jises, and we fear that the wors*t results ot 111* way in which the people of Canterbury have just been misled will only make themselves apparent when a justifiable appeal to the'heart of —e public becomes necessary.