The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2129, 3 March 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1870.

All classes in Dunedin are interested in the Benevolent Institute, and have shown their ready desire to support it. No apology is, therefore, needed for giving an outline of its operations during the past year, as recorded in the

seventh report of the Committee of Management and the accompanying tables, which were yesterday laid on our table. The report may bo summarised thus :—Although there has been a heavy outlay, through the necessity for adding to the building, the Society has been so liberally supported that at the close of the year there was a balance in hand of £1,484 4s 4d. The removal of children committed to the charge of the Institute under the “ Neglected and Criminal Children’s “Act” to the Industrial School, and the extended building, have enabled the Society to admit “ many deserving “ applicants,” who, through want of the necessary accommodation, had been previously excluded. The reduction in the price of the necessaries of life had also enabled the Committee to afford out-door relief more widely than hitherto. The cost of maintenance of each inmate during the year was 8s 9|-d per week. The remainder of the report speaks highly of the master, matron, and schoolmistress, and details the arrangements made for the religious training of the children. Turning to the balance-sheet, we find that the balance in hand from 1868 was £534 7s 6d; the subscriptions, collections, &c., amounted to £1,103 4s 2d; proceeds from other sources, £lO7 Is 6d ; and Government grants, £3,887 15s 6d ; making a total of £5632 8s Bd. The payments were : for out-door relief, £746 Is 4d; milk, groceries, meat, &c., £525 11s sd ; furnishing, repairs, including salaries, labor, office rent, school requisites, &c., £854 Os 2d; cost of building, fencing, and repairs, £1,618 3s 8d; clothing, £214 10s; fuel, £7O 17s 2d; medicines, cartage, rates, insurance, stamp duties, £ll9 Os 7d; making a total expenditure of £4,148 4s 4d. As a passing remark, we may be permitted to say, that the items “ rates and stamp duties ” convey unpleasant impressions to our minds. Surely public revenue chargas ought to be remitted upon institutions for charitable purposes. It is supposed that rates and stamp duties are payable by individuals out of the profits of their transactions, but to tax public charities is to filch a still greater amount of revenue from the pockets of the donors, and to say in effect, “You “ shall not even do a good act without “ paying duty for it;” besides, to the extent of the revenue charge, interfering with the usefulness of the Institution. The out-door and discharged recipients of relief for the year 1869 were 54 men, 286 women, and 739 children. The time during which each family received relief is stated as follows :—One family, six years; one, five years; four, four years; two, three years; seven, two years; five eighteen months; four, fifteen months; three, twelve months; two, eleven months; three, ten months ; two, nine months ; three, eight months; six, seven months; two, six months; four, five months; nine, four months ; ten, three months; twenty-six, two months; forty-one, one month. Twenty-nine families were supplied with clothing, &c. Twelve are set down as permanent cases. The total number of families thus relieved was one hundred and seventy-seven. The numbers discharged from the Institute at Caversham were four men, two women, fifteen boys, and twentyeight girls : total, forty-nine. Of those five boys and thirteen girls were passed to the Industrial School; two boys and two girls were placed at service, and were well spoken of; one man, five boys, and eleven girls were taken out by their friends ; two men and one woman left voluntarily; two boys were sent to friends in other Colonies; one boy was sent to the Lunatic Asylum ; one woman was discharged, and one imn.ri died. There are three other tables specifying analytically the totals which have been already given, to only one of which we call particular attention, and we do this to show that the Benevolent Institute is not a merely local, but a Provincial or even Colonial Institution. This table specifies the residences, past or present, of the various families relieved in 1869, as follows : —One, Chatham Islands ; two, Canterbury; eight, Southland; three, Mataura { four, Clutha; one, Teviot; four, Tokomairiro; two, Tuapeka Mouth; five, Tuapeka; two, Waitahuna; five, Waipori; seven, Taieri; one, Brighton; one, Blueskin ; three, Macraes Flat; five, Waikouaiti; one, Mount Ida ; one, Dunstan; one, Twelve-mile ; two, Blacks ; one, Switzers ; eleven, Port Chalmers; one, the Heads; two, Moeraki; fifteen, Oamaru and the Waitaki ; eighty-four, Dunedin ; four, Anderson’s Bay and North East Harbor. These details, however dry, ai’e suggestive : they lead to the reflection that, by means of this Institute, want has been relieved, sickness alleviated, crime prevented; that the bounty of the subscribers has been carefully dispensed ; that the merits of each case is carefully inquired into ; and that, in consequence of the organisation of the Society, imposture, is far less practicable than when charity is conferred by individuals. Thus every contribution is made to produce

the’largest possible amount of benefit. We trust that this short account of the work of the Institute during the past year will commend it to the continued and increased support of the public during 1870.