Manawatu Herald TUESDAY. APRIL 2. 1889. POOR RELIEF.

Manawatu Herald, 2 April 1889, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY. APRIL 2. 1889. POOR RELIEF.

:■■ ■+ Within the 'ast few days the ques tion as to what power the Mayor possessed in granting relief to the

poor »ud destitute, has donie tip for consideration. Under ordinary circumstances the question could have been disposed of in a few words, as the Borough would have been a portion of a district comprised within one of the Hospital and Charitable Aid districts created by " The Hospitals and Charitable Institutions Act, 1885." Owing to the severance irom the Manawatu County and the formation of the Borough, this district is at present included in no such Hospital distriot, and will not be until such time as the Governor shall hy warrant under his hand appoint the county within which the Borough shall be deemed to be included, for ihe purposes of theabove mentioned act. The position now held by the Borough is peculiar, it is necessitated to administer charity but has to do so solely at its .own expense, whereas where it part of a i hospital district it would receive a subsidy from the Government of a pound for every pound raised. Though this may sound so far unsatisfactory, the contra side has its pleasing features, for the Council does not pretend to have any sum at disposal for such purposes and has not to go through the farce of calculating beforehand what its probable expenditure may be in this line, and has not, as other local bodies, to pay away to the Charitable Aid Board, any sum. The advantage in this is greater even than it seems, as by degrees the Charitable Aid Board has become accustomed to receive all amounts from local bodies claiming the Government subsidy on the amounts received, and only returning to the smaller bodies the actual amount paid by them, retaining the subsidy for some not very clearly explained purpose. And this system has originated a recklessne-s in the administration of relief, that is not half as yet und rstood. There have been exposures of very glaring cases, but the indulgent assistance granted by local bodies on the application of a member, merely on his assertion of the necessity of a case, has not yet been brought frequently forward. This has been occasioned by the local body losing all claim to a refund of monies paid, so should the Borough estimate their expenditure in this matter to be, say twenty pounds a year, and after paying this amount to the Board they only required to expend ten pounds,, the other ten pounds becomes a dead loss. This was the case but a few months ago, and we helieve it to be the case now. The local bodies unfortunately acting on this belief never objected to making any grant, providedit was within the amount already in, in fact we recollect a member of the Charitable Aid Board advocating such expendture, as being better for the money to be returned to the district than re tamed by the Board. A rumour, and more, is current that during a political contest for a seat in the House of Representatives, one of the strongest canvassers of a candidate,, was one who had been in receipt of "Charitable aid for some time from the local body the candidate was a member, of. We have gone thus far into the question, as cases sometimes occur, in which a Mayor has to do something for a destitute person, and he can hardly be asked to pay it out of his own pocket. We find that under section 408 of "The Municipial Corporations Act 1886 " the Council may out of the Borough funds provide relief of sick, aged, infirm or poor persons. In acting upon this authority the Mayor is entitled to take care of the burgesses rates by using every care to secure the return ot the relief granted, and were we part of a Charitable Aid district, that Act enjoins on the administrators of it, a duty to obtain from the person assisted "a reasonable sum towards the same respectively, according to his means," but as the Borough is in its present peculiar position the Council have still "The Destitute Persons Act 1877 " to fall back upon. According to this Act any respectable person may make oath, or the person applying for relief, can do so, if they happen to be aware of the fact, that the person applying is destitute, and has a near relative within the colony of sufficient ability to support such person, and a Justice of the Peace can' issue a summons calling upon such relative to do so, and refund all monies previously laid out. We have not much liking for the Act, but as cases at times crop up which are best dealt with under it, whilst it is in existence, we urge that every step be taken to shift the burden off the ratepayers and place them upon the shoulders the Act declare shall bear them. We urge this very strongly, as it is far easier to pay and have done with it, than to pay and ferret out the return of the money, but it is just because other people's money is spent thus lightly, that the drain upon this contribution daily becomes heavier. An official who parts with a shil ing this way without making every exerj tion to obtain its return, should be ! held to have illegally parted with the i public rates.