The District Charitable Aid Board.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1560, 19 November 1885, Page 2

The District Charitable Aid Board.

The first meeting of the United District Board fur charitable aid was held yesjUrday m the Wanganui Council Chambers. T|iere were present — Messrs Jncksou (W*nganui, m tho chair), Podson (Wanganui County), Peat (Wai totara County), Wilson (Rangitikei County Council), Beckett (Marton), Thynne {Manawatu Council), Homer ami Hunter), Patua County Council), Adams, Gibson, Brown aud Currie (Patea Borough Council), and Macarthur (Feildinjf) — The Ghairinan~«read~*..-tlie regulations forwarded by the Premier as to the first meetiiig arid the date fixed for it. After doing bo he re-stated as previously* that m his opinion*the t Uoited Board was a miatako, and before {Kging further he of the Patea «nomb*r* mi "the matter.— Mr Adams, Mayor >>f P«t«a, stated that at their first meeting .the Patea Board .had come toUhe coiicluhiou that it would bo advisable to' 'allow Patea to manage its own charitable aid affairs. It) moving the resolution -given^beiow tie said that a blunder had been ijpade m ijjthe Act. The Patea people had no v^dea when the Act wasTUiiderthe dUeuesion that it was contemplated making them a separate, Hospital District, o% -.uniting them with Wanganui , m vcharjtabft aid niattorst He thought thaVunder clauiie 22 the, Board ha<j power to pass the motion.' i ße riowhiowfa^-isfz., That this Board dechre the Patea Hospital Distriot a separate district^ for^he purpose of the distribution of chafiUbld *i<Mnd that this Board endow the Patea Tlospitat BoardvwitUfuH p.Qjt^i'-of administration and distribution of charitable aid m that ' district, and that jthe; Patea County Council and Patea Borough , Council .be declared the contributing : bodies.— Ur Homer, Chairman of the Patea County Council, seconded the motion, — Mr Macarthur thought the principle they should adopt was that of allowing each local : body to manage its own charitable aid : affairs.-; He would suggest that each local body should be asked tounake an estimate of wliatf their charitable aid would cost for a year, and that they should then make a voluntary contrjbutioti of ono : half. The total num. could* be banked to the., accouat of i the Board, the Government subsidy would be obtained on this and the whole then handed back to tho several districts who, it was to be understood, should „d«al with it for their own charitable ' aid. This would only necessitate the Board 1 * meeting onco m three *or four months, and it appeared to him it would b» Ithe •only way m which' the Act could be worked.— Mr Tynne understood that th,e Mayor of Patea was to be asked to withdraw his motion aud th»n «g»n#ralsubdivision be made of the district*. — Mr Maicarthur ( said h the' 'whole ■: jdjfi&ilty would be sol ved if all the njpueys pasted through their funds, ' arid" the subsidy obtained thereon: If Mr Adams' motion were carried the Patea District would not be able to claim- any subsidy, and thus they would W taxing .themselves additionally. So far as Hospital purposes were concerned the Wanganui District would be quite separate from the Patea District and its funds' ,wera> clear, from the Charitablo Aid "Fund. They wero quite m accord with Patea as to the working of the Act, but were merely at variance as to .the means.— Mr Peat said they were going too fast m talking of sub-dividing. All the poor 'drifted' tttwnwards, nands^they^w^re m effdet, saying tha.t; Wanganui and Palmerston were to have their own poor I thrown ;on their ' hand*, 'whereas the Counties had probably had no poor to sup.port. He took it that the LegisUturi, m ? inakiDg wide districts^iffed to compel the whole- country to maintain its own poor, aud tins, he held; was the right policy . —fflt |$ajbajtjiuT»aid he had not ovei looked this matter, it having been brought up too often m the House. The ; Go|e|ninent ,Be,emad,,tp haye this ; object- in "viewin making large ais^icts, but they were not anxious to adopT this plan down his way. He thought the 'Government, 1 eape'cially thep r fe*sent Goyernment, would be only too triad to 'eßdape ; p'ayirient if any * 'district f Contravenedx.the proyisiona^ of- the Act.— Mr Peat said that His impression of the Act ; wfas i that it provided, for a, large body to^/proyi,de.f4?^f*v B ypP or * °^ tn * poor of the large distncts^lf the southern members ,were anxious to\ have their own ; cliantable n ftffairß7 rj oh- their' 1 owu hands, it was quite" unfair, and would come v«ry heavy on the towns. — Mr j Thynne 1 moved as an f amendment That this Board divide the district into the following sub-divisions-- viz., ..« The Borough and County of Patea, Ran gitikei County, Martpn Boroujjh, Feilding Borough, Palnierstoin Borongh, Kiwitea Road Board, M>nc!ießt«r Road Board, ilanaw^atif; JRoad Bovd, Bulls Road Bqard, Halcbmbe Road. Board, Tnrakina Road Board,' Warignnnfclßorough, Wanganui% County, a'tfd^Wiitotara County, and that «acH subdivision shall be liable to eon tribute to the support of the charitable aid m theft . ojrnlsnb^i visions, seconded by Mr Wilson. """ Sfrßeckett did mot tbidk the people >of^Wanganui. had been very heavily ' Witln their coptrißqlions to charitablo aid m the. past. It appeared to him that itt a few -wbnistbiv/pdsitioa now/Vraft' v - asyou.were^ Y\ Mr Gjbson considered that by each place looking after |ifs owtj^t^e poor would be prevented from crowding into the towns. ..... The motion was. withdrawn and the amendment put and earned,' We- Peat vot ing against it ' , On resumittgthe chairman read a letler from the iWanganui Benevolent Society enclosing the resolutions passed at the meeting held the previous day. — Air ; Thynne moved :«. That ,the several subdivisions be requested to provide to this Board a return of the araoubt required for charitable aid purposes: to the end of the year ending 31 st March 1886? #ith a cheque for half of the ariiounto i or before the Ist December, the chairman to take steps to get the subsidy.— The chairman 'pointelTontthst the Board had to, take over all existing institu. tibnson the Ist December;— M^ Macarthur seconded the motion. He thought thVm«aning of Haif/contributions should be explained to the local bodies. He thought it would' be necessai-y' to send an explanatory letter regarding the wishes of the Board as to these contiibulions:—The motion wa"*; carried. With regard to the Benevolent Society's resolution, Mr Macarthut said that the Wanganui Borough Council would have to takeover the ba'ses^^n-Feilding they had to take ovnrseyejrtl. cases, as the Benevolent Society 4 hid not been able to incorporate. That Society was willing to carry) out the urockjunder the local bodies, who pFoyjjiedttße funds, and no doubt 80niethirigf bflthe kind would be done m Wangaouk— Mr Thynne moved, and Mr^Maoarthnr keoonded the following resolution {—That with reference to the letter received' from the Wanieanul i Benevolent Society, the bo informed that the same should be laid before ( the chairman K ojf u the governing body of the Wanganui Borough Subdivision, to whom has been .entrusted the 'adininistratidh of chafitable^aid for the Borough of Wanganui. This was carried with only one ' dissentient, Mr Peat. Mr Jaokson was elected chairman of the Charitable Aid Board otthaUnited District of Wang'aiiiYi ihd^Pattia, and the clerk of the District Board the Cletk of the 'United Board? The Bank of New Zealand was chosen as the Board's Bauk, and ; . Mepsrjß . P ; eat and Poison were autliori&ed io sign ohVques. — Some discussion took place as to a point raised byMriAdams, wh. ? aske^ wither a