3

H.—9

Summary of Amounts paid on account of Hospitals and Charitable Aid from 1st January, 1876 to 31st March, 1887.

Return showing the Amounts paid in each Provincial District on account of Hospitals and Charitable Aid, for the Year 1884-85. (This year is given as an example; the others, 1876 to 1886, appear in Appendix.)

A sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable any one to estimate properly the extremly complex results that are gradually making themselves felt as the outcome of the new Act. In order, however, to lay before Parliament the best provisional report I could of the process of transition from the old to the new system of charitable aid locally administered, subject only to Government inspection, I began to investigate the system of outdoor relief in the various centres of population. Circumstances led me to begin my examination at Auckland in July last, and it speedily became clear to me that if I wanted to get at the facts I must ascertain them for myself. I found the Charitable Aid Board was thoroughly anxious to grapple with the great evils of which they were becoming aware in the distribution of outdoor relief. After consultation with members of the Board, and getting all the information I could from their officers, I found there was no person in Auckland who had anything like a sufficient personal knowledge of the character and circumstances of the recipients of charitable aid. I found it necessary therefore to engage the services of ex-Detective Strathearn, who was thoroughly familiar with the town and its inhabitants. In his company I made a house-to-house examination of all the cases of outdoor relief in the most populous parts of the city, and found that, during the period when the General Government provided most of the money, a state of things had grown up that in a young country like this was simply dreadful. I will give two cases by way of illustration, with tho understanding, however, that Auckland was not worse in this matter than several other parts of the colony. Mrs. A., a widow who had been receiving rations for many years, bought a property for £300, and paid off that amount, with the exception of £70, while in receipt of rations. Mrs. B. was living on her own freehold, and receiving 7s. 6d. per week interest on money invested, and had been getting rations for years, and so on with many other cases. A good many persons were found to be in receipt of rations who had relatives in good circumstances, and who were liable for their support. Besides all these, there was the usual mass of vicious and fraudulent impostors, who, whatever claims they had to be kept from actual starvation, had no right to receive outdoor relief. As many as a hundred persons were struck off the list shortly after my visit, and the determination with which the Board performed their arduous and unpleasant duties resulted in a very marked diminution of this mischievous expenditure of public money. During tho quarter ending the 31st December last the amount expended in outdoor relief in Auckland and suburbs was £167 lls. 5d ; whereas in the corresponding period of 1886, when the times were better and the struggle for a living less severe, the amount was £842 18s. lid., equal to a decrease of £375 7s. 4d. On my way home from Auckland I found that a still worse state of things existed at Napier, and at my last visit I was glad to see that the expenditure had been reduced by about 50 per cent. Finding myself committed to the duties of a sort of Poor-law Inspector for the colony from my conviction of the urgency of this great evil, I visited as opportunity offered all persons who were receiving aid in Nelson, Now Plymouth, Wanganui, Wellington, and Dunedin. In all the other districts I made careful inquiries of the local authorities, so as to enable me to get a general view of the conditions under which the Act is administered.

Year. Hospitals. Benevolent Institutions and Out-door lielief. Orphanages and Industrial Schools. Female Kefuges. Totals. £ s. a. 12,790 8 7 38,104 5 11 38,088 5 4 30,398 7 1 30,719 7 10 37,017 19 4 45,395 15 0 49,884 18 7 53,087 6 7 48,300 11 0 £ s. cl. 0,983 4 2 17,768 i 10 19,948 6 9 15,472 10 2 21,280 9 10 23,735 1 10 26,812 9 0 2G.817 9 8 34,393 3 8 32,183 15 3 £ s. a. 1,841 1G C 4,542 19 3 3,840 17 5 ' 3,970 1 2 5,771 4 2 0,404 16 5 6,423 18 11 7,401 7 2 8,954 13 0 7,078 0 4 £ s. a. £ s. a. 21,615 9 3 00,645 10 0 02,340 14 3 50,189 15 5 04,485 4 6 67,538 3 3 79,756 14 4 84,533 11 7 97,822 16 9 89,184 2 0 .876-77 .. .877-78 .. .878-79 .. .879-80 .. .880-81 .. .881-82 .. .882-83 .. .883-84 .. .884-85 .. 885-86 .. .880-87 .. 230 0 0 4C9 4 9 348 17 0 714 2 8 380 5 8 1,124 11 5 430 1 2 787 13 G 1,021 15 5 Totals 390,387 0 3 225,395 2 2 56,829 14 4 5,506 11 7 078,118 1 4

District. Hospitals, Benevolent and Out-door Belief. Orphanages and Industrial Schools. Female Refuges. Totals. Auckland Earanaki Wellington Hawko's Bay kelson Marlborough Canterbury Westland Otago 9,100 10 9 1,123 17 4 8,755 10 10 3,737 15 1 3,308 3 4 1,379 12 2 9,341 8 9 4,911 7 10 11,908 8 0 G,558 9 4 903 10 3 3,065 6 9 923 0 8 1,573 2 G 200 14 G 13,707 18 10 798 17 3 5,930 3 7 2,350 17 2 486 7 0 19 12 0 3,48G 9 5 45 0 0 2,40G 7 5 95 17 8 438"o 0 18,166 0 11 2,027 7 7 13,345 10 7 4,G80 7 9 8,307 15 3 1,691 6 8 25,829 10 10 5,710 5 1 18,004 12 1 253 15 10 100' 0 0 Totals 53,087 G 7 34,393 3 8 8,954 13 0 787 13 6 97,822 1G 9