The Star. FRIDAY, MAY 6,1904. PROFESSIONAL PAUPERISM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8004, 6 May 1904, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, MAY 6,1904. PROFESSIONAL PAUPERISM.

The report presented to the Woolstqh Borough Council by its representative on ' the Charitable Aid Board is further cvi- ' deno© of the need for the reform of the present system of administering charitable aid. To quote Mrs Henderson's report, the system in vogue tends to develop and perpetuate a pauper class. Instead of recipients of relief being called upon to make some return in the shape oi work, and thus retain their self-respect, they are helped | "-without any return being demanded." /Some, of course, are. so oldt or ill that it would be unreasonable to expect them to make any return, but others are able to work, and the fact of their not being call-: cdl upon to do so simply encourages them^ to lean on charity. Again, the present system is responsible for building up what threatens to become a race of paNapers. Mrs Henderson declares, and there is plenty of evidence to support her assertion, that in some cases persons have been in receipt of charitable aid for as long^as twenty years, and they have remained a burden on the country in spite of the fact that their children' have grown up, and in other respects their circumstances have improved 1 . These examples are bad enough, but a worse feature of a. defective system is apparent in the number of illegitimate chil- I dren on the rates. On a former occasion, when a demand for reform was made, it 'was stated that women with growing families of illegitimate children were regular and constant recipients of relief. It is clear; of course, that, when necessary, help muet.be forthcoming for these unfortunates, as well as for others who, by stress- of circumstances, are unable, to provide either for themselves or for those dependent on them. But. it will occur to most people who give the subject a moment's thought that charitable aid ought not to be allowed to degenerate' into a cloak for vice and an excuse for the idle not to work. If . a recipient of relief- is an able-bodied person, it would be far better for him that he should work for his living than to eat the bread 1 of idleness, and when cases of illegitimacy come before the Board every effort should be made to discover the father and make him contribute to the maintenance of both mother and child. But these are details which would be merely part 'and parcel, of an efficient system. What is necessary is to create such, a system. "W^hen this is done it should be possible to discriminate between the various cases which come before the Boardi and to treat them both on their merits and in a manner which will check professional pauperism.