To-Day.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5056, 15 September 1894, Page 4

To-Day.

Matters have come to each a pass in connection with the administration of Charitable aid in this Province, that I public attention mneb be called to the I facts S3 they really exist. The intention I of the Legislature in placing the " Hospital 5 and Charitable Institution Act, 1885/' on i the Statute Book was, undoubtedly, to put I a stop to the corrupting tendency of i private almsgiving, and to enßure that the I truly charitable Bbould not be imposed upon. It wp.b clearly also the intent and pnrpo3e of the Act ' that the cost of supporting the poor and the helpless, the ] sick aad the destitute, should be I equitably distributed among the tasi payers of tae colony 5 that those s possessed of wealth should contribute a quota which in turn should be subsidised from the consolidated revenue, bo that every resident of New Zealand should contribute according to his means. That the I Act has failed in its working is abundantly apparent, or why is it that there exist so many places of refuge supported by voluntary subscriptions, so many guilds, missions and other relieving bodies ? The Charitable Aid Boards, &s by law established, have failed to grapple with the work entrusted to them, and private oharity is as active to-day as it was before 1 a direct tax was legalised for the support: j of the poor and needy. That we as a people are guilty of the grievous offence of creating and perpetuating a race of paupera must be admitted, : however grievous tho faot may ba to us. Year after year the demands upon tho Boards grow heavier, and private efforts in the relief of cas«3 of necessity have the strain upon them increased. In a young country such as this, with all its grand I resources, all its possibilities, ouch a state lof things is worse than lamentable— it is a ; scandal and a menace to our race. Thurts i has ever bean a disinclination on the part of the Legislature to grapple with tha 1 difficulty. Matter3 of leas import, but of ; a more popular kind, have elbowed this * vast question out of the way, and the evil 1 has gone on growing until it threatens to become as great m comparison aB that which preceded tho introduction of the drastic and damnable system which now ' disfigures the Mother Land in relation to i her poor. There hoa grown up in this colony alongside the pauper population a ; system of administration which is as mon- ' etrous in its costliness ss it is inefficient in its working. In vain are worthy men appointed to help in the manipulation of the fnnds provided from the public purse. ; They enter into the work determined to do ; the right; but a few short months of ; experience disheartens them, and they : sink into the position of mere machines, worked upon alike by professional paupors and by paid officials. With a zeal that is most commendable they set abont the task of investigating ; cases of poverty. Thay are met with ap- ! peals which they find it impossible to I resist, and they insist upon these cases I being relieved — only to find afterwards i that their pity was misplaced and the charity improperly bestowed. They grow suspicious, even callous; they leave much, • a great deal too much, to their paid offioarß, and roal poverty hides its head and suffers lather than submit to the degradation of pleading almost on it3 knees for that which the State intended should be its by right;. Giants to impovished families are grudgingly given, end where the suffering ones are weak women and children little head is paid to their stories of misery and woe. If a case of real hardship is brought under the aotice of tho Board the paid officialo often pooh-pooh it. They tell the committee that "the woman is a bad lot," and that " she ought to be able to earn enough to Jceep herself and her children." At the very same moment there are those who are in receipt of orders for rations who walk into the shops where the rations are supplied and order— to the extent of the value of the ticketß obtained by them— tinned fruits, jama and other luxuries ! It is 8 faot that this sort of thing is going on in this city and district at the present moment, while at the same time eomo poor creatures have begged in vain for food for themselves and their little ones. In the case of a woman who came to the editor of the Star, an interview was sought by him with the secretary to the local Charitable Aid Board. That official deprecated any assistance being given ; the writer insisted that, at anyrate, the inepeotor should be sent to make enquiries. He was so Bent, and it was then found necessary to give the woman relief. Why should it have been necessary for tha editor of a newspaper to act the part of a relieving officer ? It was necessary, because the woman herself had appealed in vain for assistance. In the more recent case for which help was sought through these columns for a woman threatened with eviotion by the Church Pro- ( party Trustees, an appeal was made Ito the Charitable Aid Board, and ! tn*e editor waß again met with the j story of this woman's worthlesaness. "She had boon in receipt of 3a 6d per week, and she had a lodger who paid her other 3s. The Board could do more for her. Yea; they would pay 14s towards the arrears of her rent." The woman has besn a widow for seven years. Sho has two children to maintain, and she ia not fitted for much in the shape of work. The Board declined to help her to any further extent than the 3s 6d per week, but an appeal having been made to Mr Westenra, the chairman, he had some firewood sent along. If the woman was unworthy of help, why was it found necessary, after an appeal from a newspaper editor, to send along some firing for the poor occupants of the hovel out of which the family had been ordered to go ? The unfortunate woman, seeing nothing but dire want before her, aeked that her children should be committed to a State home, so that she might be able to seek a livelihood in some place of service. Representations were made by the writer to Mr R. Beetham, Stipendiary Magistrate, and he interested himself in the case, and an appeal was made to the police to act. \ They refused, without the case was renommended by the Charitable Aid Board, and the Secretary of the Board, on being appealed to, ref uaad. He made some rather uncomplimentary references— so it ia stated —about the Star and its editor; bat, let that past) for the present. Here, then, is the position. The woman can do nothing to help herself or her ohildren; she cannot; sgo her way to managing for the future ; the Board will not help her to feed her children, nor will they consent to the children being sent to a State home. There i3 ' only one thing tor her to do, and that is to I leave the shelter of her present roof — as she cannot pay the rent and at the same time buy food out of 6s 6d per week— and wander the streets until she is arrested as a vagrant, when, doubtless, her children will be committed to an industrial school and she will be sentenced to a term for having no lawful visible mcaaß of support ! This ia exactly how the case stands, and what the public will want to know is : Why should the pbblic funds be so administered as that a dole sufficient to help the woman and her children should be refused P Now, while the Charitable Aid Board is so jealous of the expenditure of the public funds in the relief of cases such as those above quoted, how does it order the expenditure in the matter of administration and management? and how does the expense of management of our Board compare, say, with that of Otago ? In, Otago, ; the yearly expenditure totale, in round

(numbers, nearly £12,000. Out of that amount is paid for salaries and wages about £800 a year. The people employed , include— A secretary at £250 per annum. An inopeotor at £120 per annum. A doctor at £100 per annum. The other portion of the expenditure is divided betweon a master and matron of the Benevolent Home, an assistant secretary (an inmate, at £10 per annum), and j a cook, servant maids, io. The gross expenditure of the North Canterbury Charitable Aid Board totals close on £15,000 per annum, and the coet of administration is nearly £1500 per annum ! In the items salaries and wages are included— I A Bsoretary at £350 per annum. I Assistant secretary at £140 per annum. I Second assistant at £90 per annum. Third assistant at £50 per annum. An inspector at £170 per annum. I And a doctor at £200 per annum. Hare we have a total of £1000 per annum againat Otago'a £470. Is this not a monstrous state of thicga ? Was it ever contemplated by the Legislature, or can it be sanctioned by the public that fat billets should be created for a small army of officials aud a lavish expenditure go on in this way while the starving poor are I pinched and turned empty away ? Besides the expenditure thus shows, there are salaries to matrons, servants and others, amounting to nearly another £500, There has been a telephone put on to the secretary's private residence, though 8, , telephone is within five minutes' walk of ' his house at the police station. But to fully grasp the iniquity or this extravagance of the Beard through utterly im- | proper channels, it is necessary to trace its growth, and to show, &ho, by a memorandum above the secretary's own signature that he is not at all satisfied, and that during last year he had the temerity to ass for an increase to £400 per annum. That he will get that advance in salary is pretty certain if the present members of the Board prove to be as good friends to him in the future as they have been in the paßt. In 1886 Mr T. C. Norris joined the Board at a salary of £225 per annum, but it has gone up and up till it hes reached the Bum of £350— an amount, it will be admitted, which should not be paid by any Charitable Aid Board, especially when the total office salaries amount to £800 as aarainst Orago's £370. But on April 15, 1893, Mr Norris wrote the following 1 memorandum to the Chairman of the " Select " Committee appointed to go into the matter of salaries:—" The pecretary was appointed in February, 1886, shortly after the constitution of tbe Board under the Act of 1885. The salary was £226. In the following October, the Board, of its own motion, increased this to £275. A year afterwards the secretary applied for further recognition of his work, asking that the salary might be reconsidered and determined on a permanent basis, and submitting that the peculiar nature of his duties warranted cm expectation of £400 a year. The Board resolved to increase tho amount from £275 to £350, at which it has since remained." Behind the offices, so splendidly staffed and so comfortably arranged, there is 4 so-called home or refuge for destitute old men. They are allowed tho munificent) sum per week on which to live of 0110 shilling and ninepence, and if it be said that at an announcement of this kind a feeling ; of intense indignation springs up in one's ; heart, who can wonder at ii P The memI bets of the Board have a solemn and a I sacred duty before them, and if they refuse to face it, the ratepayers will want to know the reason. There ia yet more to tell, bnt enough baa been disclosed to warrant tho moot, terrible denunciation ever yet hurled at a mis-called charitable institution. What baa been here stated would almost warrant a commission of enquiry by the State. Tbe marvel is that 1 suoh an outrageous state of things has been allowed to exist for so long.