INDIGENT GENTLEWOMEN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 430, 12 February 1909, Page 6

INDIGENT GENTLEWOMEN.

THE M'LEAN INSTITUTE. IBT TELEUKAPtl —IMtUSS ■ ASSOCIATION.] Chrfstrtiurchj February 11. At the.meeting of the; Boafd. of Governors of the M'Lean to^day,,/the question whether the board had power to devoto the funds under their control to . .the . payment' of the_ maintenance of indigent,, gentlewomen who did .not desire, to .go into a homo arosa out of a letter, received .from; lady Stout, who applied for assistance of the nature indicated, on behalf of a ladyin.tho south who is in ; indigent circumstances.lt .was pointed out in the discussion which.ensued,that the. board had obtained legal opinion! on the point last year, such opinion' being to the effect that'the board could not, under the conditions of the will of the. lato Allan M'Lean, grant outdoor relief to persons: who were not inmates of a home established under! .the will, but : that the : board would be acting legally in providing more'than one home, ana that each home could consist of one inmate or more. The chairman; (Mr;. C;. Allison) f urged that the-board, whilst .getting the institutions provided for by the will into working order,- should rent several furnished houses in order to relieve the half-dozen cases that they knew required assistance at present. .The suggestion,- he added, was in . the ■'nature of a' temporary expedient. ,• Mr: H.,-W.. Bishop, S.M., thought that temporary, "expedients were.dangerous things,, and he did. not know., where the board was going to. draw the line 'if'; the chairman's . suggestion was T adopted, and; added that if- it were there would be no necessity, for an institution'of; the kind that it: was' proposed to establish.'. It was decided. to. defer further;discussion-'till -tie next .meeting of the board, riiembers in "he meantimo to bo supplied with a'copy of, the legal opinion. To-morrow, the board will visit several large residences wliich have. been, offered for . the' purposes of the. institution.