The Globe. TUESDAY JUNE 18, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1355, 18 June 1878, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY JUNE 18, 1878.

Unless at the last moment Ministers change their minds, on the 30th of this month the charitahlo aid distributed by the Government will cease, and no provision has been made for its continuance after that date. It is not our intention in this article to discuss the question in its political bearing, or to canvass the conduct of the Government in taking the cruel course they have done. What wo wish to do is to direct attention to the fact, that unless immediato and decisive steps are taken during the next ten or twelve days, sovoral hundred men, women, and children will bo in great danger of starvation. At the present time over six hundred peoplo, a largo numbor of whom are children, are receiving charitable aid. Some of these are wholly, and others partially dependent upon the Government for all food they eat and protection from the inclemency of the weather. The sudden stoppage of assistance may mean not only misery to many, but death from starvation and exposure to some. Wo do not believe that the citizens of Christchurch realise the extent of the danger ahead. Our aim at present is to force the subject prominently bcforo the benevolent, in the hope that something will be done to provide at least temporary relief. From a variety of causes, the necessity for united and organised charitable work has not boon greatly felt in Christchurch. But we do not believe that on that account the peoplo of this city will be found indifferent in a crisis which to all appearance will soon bo upon us. " Compassion is still the unrepealed law of every individual heart." What is wanted then is some kind of organisation to collect the required funds to meet pressing cases and administer them economically and to the best advantage. Fortunately Mr. March would bo .able, and, no doubt, very willing, to furnish any committee that might bo appointed with all necessary information. Wo hopo, therefore, that some stop will bo taken at onco to convene a meeting and appoint a committee. Whatever opinion the public may hold regarding the course tho Government proposo to take in leaving tho widow and the orphan to their fate, we cannot allow the poor amongst us to perish for lack of food.

Wo hopo too, when active steps are taken, that the work will not bo left to a few willing hands only. There is a vast amount of wasted enorgy in our midst which greatly requires directing into a proper and useful channel. The rapid growth of wealth in recent years is placing it in the power of a largo number of heads of families to allow their daughters to grow up in luxurious idleness. They are not called upon to battle with surrounding misery and poverty and wretchedness, as in older countries, and so they miss ono of the most potent means of training themselves for a life of usefulness. It is to bo hoped, therefore, that the aid of the ladies of Christchurch will bo sought for in tho present emergency, and that they will heartily respond to the call made upon them. If they do, there is no fear of the result. But, the initiative must bo taken by some ono, or the end of the month may iind us totally unprepared.

It is almost useless to discuss calmly any public question with the Star. When defeated in argument, as it generally is. it has ono and apparently only ono resource left —that of charging its opponent with misrepresentation. Tho other evening wo quoted a passage from its leading article purporting to bo a defouco of Ministerial action in giving Government advertisements as much as possible to ti.eir friends only all things being equal, «nd drew tho logical inference that to defend such a course was to advocate '* bribery and corruption." We pointed out that tlu> revenue of the

colony spent in ihe payment of advertisements as the reward of support, did not belong to Ministers at all, but to the people. This view of the question has evidently rather taken our contemporary aback, but after a little time had elapsed it returned to tho subject last evening, in tho following language : Now, we ventured an opinion that a choice of parties haying to be made, and all things being equal, sensible persons would choose to give the advantage to their friends, whereupon we find it asserted of this common sense proposition " that it is an unblushing and barefaced defence of bribery and corruption." This deduction is to be supposed one of those fair " inferences " which our contemporaries possess tho rare faculty of making, and not an obviously mendacious statement. To those possessed of such boundless capacities for inference and misrepresentation, nothing is impossible. Surely "judgment hath fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason."

As usual our contemporary, in tho above passage, falls back upon its one resource Unable to answer our reasoning, it turns round and insinuates that Ave make mendacious statements. It would be useless to go over the arguments used by us on Friday evening. Were wo to reduce them to simple syllogistic form even, and place them before it, all tho answer wo would got would bo some incoherent ravings about lying and misrepresentation. We aro afraid our poor friend is giving indications, not only of mental weakness, but of moral infirmity. It has, of late, shown itself equally incapablo of grasping the simplest chain of reasoning and of distinguishing between what is true and what is not. It is a molancholy spectacle and one full of warning.