Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] FRIDAY, MARCH 25. 1904 UNCHARITABLE AID.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7724, 25 March 1904, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] FRIDAY, MARCH 25. 1904 UNCHARITABLE AID.

Charitable Aid had a field day in Wellington this week, where its demands appear to grow like mushrooms. It is a sore subject, but as far as we can judge, we have been making paupers and growing pauperism for the last dozen years in New Zealand. Government funds, Local Body rates, and private subscriptions have totalled up an enormous sum, over a million of money, and all to make the pauper tree grow. People are humane and mean well, but they are ignorant of the simple laws which increase and decrease destitution, and pure ignorance accounts for the unfortunate spread of poverty in the midst of plenty.

Mr Hogg protested against the evil growth in Wellington—and well he may do this ; but even he is at sea as regards the real remedy. He discerns clearly the evil itself, and the reproach which it brings upon the governing party in this Colony ; but he does not appear to have grasped the solution of the problem. The land is being filled with Homes and Asylums —for the young, for the old, and for the middle-aged. The impecunious are collected and herded regardless of expense, and the more they are collected the more they increase and multiply. Who would " grunt and sweat under a weary life, when he himself might his quietus make " in a Home ?

We quite agree with Mr Hogg that our " Charitable Aid system is the worst reflection on the intelligence of the people "; but we do not believe in his remedy, which means agricultural homes, instead of city refuges. The latter would be better than the former ; but it would still be carrying out the wrong principle of collecting, instead of distributing destitution. Pauperism grows larger with collection and smaller with distribution. The Government, which is fairly shrewd, recognised this when it instituted a Labour Department to distribute labour.

This Department ought to take charge of all destitute persons. Each one, whether man, woman, or child, represents a small per centage of labour which is going to waste. There are a hundred districts in this Colony, each one of which could find a use for a score of these unfortunates, A man or boy who can milk a cow or two, or a woman who can mind a baby, are worth their keep to a thousand and one country settlers who cannot afford to pay high wages to servants, but who can afford food and the comforts of a home to anyone who can do some little light work in

house or about it. If all the Homes were shut up to-morrow and their nmates intelligently distributed about he country, the burden of the heavy poor rates would disappear, and the destitute ones would be more happy and more comfortable.