“RELIEF” IN AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 59, 17 February 1868, Page 42

“RELIEF” IN AUCKLAND.

A select committee appointed by the Provincial Council to inquirfe into the mode of administering the fund for the relief of the sick and the destitute and orphans, amongst other cognate matters, has brought up their report which reveals a rather singular„state of affairs, as will be seen by the following extract, which we clip from a leading article in the Daily Southern Cross, Bth inst:—

The select committee, on this head of the inquiry, report that “ officials in the employ of the Provincial and General Governments were in the daily habit of receiving supplies from establishments which were instituted for the sole purpose of relieving the destitute population of the province;” and it will be found, on inquiry, that these recipients of public charity were not in the lower grades of Government employ, but in more than one instance, (Provincial officials,) counted their income by hundreds. Again, we ask, how does it happen that a daily practice of this kind should have been i undetected, although going on within ■ the precincts of the building in which the Superintendent and his Executive transacted the business of the province, during the whole period the soup kitchen was in operation, the issue of the bread ration only terminating with the general clearing-out of the ■'officials at the end of the present year ? We take it for granted that the ' Superintendent and his Executive did ■ not “ suspect” their respectable subor- • dinates; but surely there ought to have been such a degree of supervision 1 as might have led to the discovery of the practice ? But no efficient super- ! vision appears to Lave existed. And 1 so it was elsewhere. The man in charge of the soup .kitchen was supreme. He ordered what, increase of supplies he chose, and the Relieving Officer, (our remarks do not apply to Mr King,) • passed the accoimts without any demur i fit, the end of each month. The waste ; at the soup kitchen appears, to have t been enormous. The man in chargb • fed and fattened his pigs, “ sold; and i ate them,” we believe is oh thC record ; he maintained his. family as nearly as I possible;, he gave away idaily,a very large nutober of rations “ without au*

thority,” amongst which- the issue to the Superintendent's Office appears. We find likewise that when the present Relieving Officer applied a check at the soup kitchen he discovered that the manager was receiving daily seventy two-pound: loaves, fifteen pounds of butcher’s meat, potatoes, vegetables, and other supplies in proportion, in excess' of requirements. Thanks to Mr King, this gross fraud upon the public was promptly put an end to by closing the soup kitchen, which, we may remark, ought never to have been opened. The soup book bears internal evidence of the fact, that the same system prevailed during the whole time soup rations were distributed. The province must have been defrauded, in the distribution of the fond for the sick and destitute, and for the maintenance of orphans, to the extent of £1,500. We inline to the belief that £2,000 is much nearer the actual loss through the carelessness of some, and the palpable dishonesty of others.