TO HELP THE BLIND.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15358, 5 October 1923, Page 6

TO HELP THE BLIND.

SIR A. PEARSON MEMORIAL. APPEAL FOR FURTHER FUNDS. The amount estimated as necessary to carry out in New Zealand further assistance to the blind to the extent contemplated by the promoters of the fund is £45,000. Of this amount £37,000 has been raised, and a further effort towards collecting the balance of £BOOO is now in progress. In this conneotion a public meeting is' to be held on the evening of Thursday, October 11, at which addresses will be given by Hon. George Fowlds, chairman of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, and Mr Clutha Mackenzie, chairman of the Sir Arthur Pearson Memorial Fund Committee. In the matter of the welfare of the blind the principal directions, where more modern arrangements and greater efforts are required, are:—(a) The keeping in touch with every blind person in his or her home through the After-Care Supervisor, local committees' and voluntary workers, to see that they are comfortable and well cared for; (b) arrangements for the distribution of raw material at cost price to workers in their homes, arid for the collection and sale at a central depot of the product of their labours which they cannot dispose of locally; (c) the supervisor to constantly exploit every avenue offering employment to the blind, and to insist upon their employment whenever possible; (d) the supervisor to keep himself well posted and closely in touch with improved methods in the training and general supervision of the blind in other parts of the world, and to be always ready to apply these locally as far as possible; (e) the care of the mentally backward blind; (f) further educational facilities for the juvenile blind; (g) extended educational facilities for the more than averagely intelligent blind capable of professions; (h) modernised educational facilities for those who become blind in adult life; (i) additional instruction in sports and games, indoor and outdoor, and in deportment; (j) the supervisor to act generally as; the guardian of the blind throughout the Dominion, seeing that they are presentable, occupied, comfortable and happy; (k) the supervisor to act as Government agent and adviser in the administration of the pension for the blind when such is granted; (1) the supervisor to get into immediate touch with the newly blind, in order to give them courage and help! With the establishment of an organisation with these objectives as its aim, and with the necessary capital for the purpose, there is no reason why the blind should not soon be filling a position of full- economic usefulness in,the community. -The public in the past have always been willing to help the blind, but many of them have not known how to do so beyond pouring generous contributions of coppers and small silver into the box of the blind fiddler and the organ-grinder. Obviously it would be better to help the blind to help themselves by training them in occupations where they will | be useful producers, retaining their self-respect. In carrying out these objectives the Jubilee, Institute will retain its function of education, modelling itself on the best lines, and it will be the duty of the supervisor of the after-care to discharge that part of the scheme applying to the trained blind and to the blind outside the Institute. It is the after-care work which the fund is to endow. Three Classes of Blind,

The blind in New Zealand number between 500 and 600, giving an average expenditure of about £lO per head. It is estimated that between 20 and 25 people go blind annually. These are of three distinct classes, those who are blind from childhood, those who lose their sight in adult life,.say, between the ages of 16 and 50, and those whose sight fails through increasing years. The children must have a long and specialised training, and at the end of it they are usually most capable in their particular occupation, and are expert at moving about alone. Those who.lose their sight later require to be taken Immediately in hand, taught to master blindness, and either adapted to their old occupation where possible, or speedily trained to a new one. Speed is essential. For these people—most of them are penniless—money is necessary to start them when training is complete. It is no use training a blind man only to turn him out in a world of darkness and say to him "Now go ahead and do what you can." He has to be established in business and home, perhaps advertised for, and watched over for the remainder of his days. Little can be done for men and, women becoming blind over the age of 50, in the way of teaching them new trades, but there is much which can be done to give them occupation and happiness' in their declining years. They may be taught to garden, to read, and to do a certain number of small handicraft which will keep them occupied and bring them in a few shillings.

The present campaign Is being conducted with the object of collecting the comparatively small balance now remaining to enable these worthy aims to become practical possibilities'.