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Star (Christchurch), Issue 4864, 1 December 1883, Page 3

Fbom. a bbtttbk presented by order to the House of Bepresentatives, which has jußt been printed, we learn that the amount expended in charitable aid in Canterbury for the past finanoial year was £13,409. The total amount expended in the Oolony waß -£84,360. Thus considerably more than onethird the total amount waa expended in Oanterbury alone. In Auokland there was only £6593 spent— lesa than half the expenditure in Canterbury. Yet the population of Auokland is only about 12,000 less than that of Oanterbury. In Otago, the population of whioh in 1831 was 134,009, tbe amount expended was only £5039. The population of Oanterbury was 112,000, and the amount expended was, as we have said, -218,409. Now there is something wrong here. Such an enormous expenditure ia very discreditable to this -Provincial Distriot, and ought to be made the subject of inquiry. A lurid light haa been thrown on the subjeot by Mr March, who at the meeting of the Hospital ■and Charitable Aid Board, oomplained that jgreat abuses had crept into the administration of relief. He eaid that when orders were given, the recipients sometimes were -Allowed to take other articles in place of those ordered. He Btated that an order for rations appeared to be considered, both by recipients and the contractor for supplying provisions., as ef a certain money value, bo that it did not matter whether they took the artiolea specified or other things instead, and in aome eases the oharity of the Board bad been grossly abused. In one instance a pound of tobacco had been •obtained by an applicant instead of food." -Sow, however necessary tobaooo may seem to rfome .portions, it certainly never was intended that the public-funds should be employed in (providing them with it. Mr Maroh appears! to think that this abuse has beoome so -flagrant, that persons frequently apply for relief, not with the view of obtaining food, inor beoause they actually are in need of food, ■bnt for the pnrpose of proouring luxuries -which they would find it inconvenient to pay ior. Mr Maroh thinks that if the Board were to provide tbe rations and issuo them, -bis abuse would bs puc an end to. We very mneh doubt it. A found of meat, or sugar, or of tea, has a certain money -value, and there would be plenty of persons who would be found ready to buy suoh articles at a figure below their retail prioe. The real remedy would seem to be to make a more thorough investigation before giving the relief. If the upper classes in Canterbury, and more especially in the towns, would devote some of their leisure hourß to visiting their poor neighbours, and enquiring into the circumstances of suoh as really require relief, in A Christian sort of way, suoh abuses as those Mr Maroh desoribes would be fewer. iXhtto ia too muoh of the Poor law system )

here, and too little of that genial, kindly oharity whioh is so noticsable in other parts of the Oolony. Ihe rioh hold themselves entirely aloof from their poorer fellowoitizens, and oare nothing about them— save in some few instances, the Avonside parish for example. The beggarly collection on Oharity Sunday, and the miserable sum contributed to the Benevolent Institution, are proofs of this. The oonsequenoe is that Canterbury ia in the <"Higr_e---l po«ition of having more pauperism in her mid at, and absorbing more of the Oolonial revenue for its relief, than any ether distriot in the Oolony. Omitting fractions of a penny, the amount expended per head of population in the four largest Provincial distriots is as follows :—

Theße figures speak for themselves. Emphati oally we repeat that there issomething wrong somewhere 1

a. a. Canterbury 2 4 Auckland 1 4 (nearly) Wellington 1 0 Otago ° 8