The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1888. Charitable Aid

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 150, 19 July 1888, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1888. Charitable Aid

A revulsion of feeling is rapidly taking place as regards the present system of charitable aid, and before many months are past we confidently expect a movement will be made for the sweeping it away altogether. So many idlers and loafers have thrown their wives and families on the State-, or in other words, the ratepayers, to be maintained, and so many wives have shown extreme willingness to assist their worthless husbands in shaking off their responsibilities, that the milk of human kindness is becoming somewhat soured, if not scanty in supply. It would seem that many of these women prefer the regular income of charitable aid to the precarious supplies of their husbands, and therefore hasten them away in order that they may enjoy a life entirely free from worry or anxiety. We know several cases in this neighborhood of which this, and more, might be said. How seldom it is a woman can be induced to take the legal steps necessary to bring her husband back to her. Her disinclination may be perfectly excusable so far as she is concerned, but quite unreasonable when we consider that his absence throws the burden of maintaining his family on people who are more industrious. The latter class are now beginning to feel that they have no right to be crushed by a burden not of their own creating, and we certainly sympathise with them. We believe in reverting to the old system, which answered so well in Feilding some years ago, under which the philanthropise ladies and gentlemen of the place banded themselves together to find means to dispense assistance to the poor, sick, and distressed, but who offered a bold front of resistance to sturdy beggars. Under their most efficient rule no professional paupers were educated.