KUMARA OLD PEOPLES HOME.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1920, Page 4

KUMARA OLD PEOPLES HOME.

REPLY TO CRITICISM. BY CHARITABLE AID .BOARD. Prior to dealing with tho ordinary business at the meeting of the Charitable Aid Board iast evening, Mr Morel asked the Chair-mad what the Board was doing in connection with the recent criticism of the Kumara Old People’s Home. Mr Blank suggested that the Board take no notice thereof, as the letters were not addressdtl to the Board. The Chairman, pro tern (Mr Wild) said:

Before allowing ourselves to be occupied with any comments we must first study from whom they originate. Apparently the banner hearers of the socalled Labour Party have laid themselves out to attack this administration. I say the so-called Labour Party, because that'i s a name they have pirated and are in no way entitled to, their true name being the Idler Party, seeing that they inculcate the doctrine of “ do as little as you can for as much as you can get.” As far as the writers of these letters arc concerned, we particularly notice that' while a returned soldier who is delving out a home for himself and bady wants every shilling he can get, devoted a couple of pounds to a gift of tobacco for. the inmates of the home, nob one of those loud-voiced sympathizers -spent so much as the price of a whisky on them. If con i tions at Kumara were as bad as one of these people* with lurid command of language, makes them out to he then it is to tlie lasting disgrace of the people of Kumara that it should be left to an absolute outsider to discover the scandal. But the fact is that there is not a case of hardship, not even a grievance at the Kumara Home. The individual who first attacked this Boaid was foolish enough to come from generalities to particulars, and stated- two of his “ shocking cases,” one the shabby .clothes that Mr Loudon wore, and the other that Mr Preston spent all, or nearly all, his cash allowance in buymg asthma powders. Passing over the abominable spirit that inspires a man for his own self-seeking to pillory by name in this way, without their knowledge, men, who, in their day, were better men than most of us, the clothes Mr Louden wears in the institution he wears for his own pleasure, his other and better clothes he keeps by him. All of us who have had old parents know that it is oniy youth and females who like finery, and we quite sympathize with the old men in thenfeeling that “old tilings are best.” There is, and will be, as long as this Board controls the Home, a sufficient supply of clothing, but we are not going to either put the old people into uniform, as a speaker implied should be done, nor supply them with frock coats and the equivalent to a parson’s hat, as their newspaper suggested. As to Mr Preston and his whole allowance going in asthma, powders, he lifts los a month, and tells me that it costs him 15s for a six months’ supply of powders. Thesfe powders are a patent medicine that he has a fancy for, in preference to the medicine that the doctor prescribes, and it is exactly to indulge in these little fancies, whether for tobacco oi lollies or such like, that the cash is given. If we had a victim to tho opium habit in our care, we may wink at his self-indulgence out of his own pocket money, but not at the cost of the community. Any medical comforts the doctor thinks necessary are provided by the Board, anything else any inmate wants he is allowed to get himself to such extent as the doctor considers would not be injurious; neither he nor us wishing to be tyrannical in any way. While Mr O’Brien was a candidate for Parliament, and so a potential legislator, bis utterances called for some attention, but now that be is merely one of the yelping pack we would get through as little useful work as they, do if we allow ourselves to be occupied with what they have to say. As for the letter in the “ Guardian ” signed “Rudkin,” -I am rather surprised at the paper allowing its columns to beused to feed the vanity of a youth in his teens, whose vapourings contain their own answer. It will be a sorry day for the world if things should ever come to be as these people would have them, everything and every deed to have its price and be paid for, without God or heart, and no room for brotherly sympathy and charity. Anyone appealing to the base and selfish side of human nature will get Some following,, but the honest hearted true workers will ultimately see where they would' be led, and say with Kipling’s “Mary’s Son”: — ' -

•‘ If you stop to consider the work you have done, 'And boast what your labour is worth, deal", Angels may come for you, Willie, my son, But you’ll never be wanted on earth, dear,” i Any communications/ properly addressed, to the Board will,* I am sure, always receive the attention they merit, but no 1 notice will in the future be taken by the present Board of these press advertisements.