CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5101, 30 July 1877, Page 3

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS BILL.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —After reading your report in this morning’s issue of the debate on the first reading of the Charitable Institutions Bill in the House of Representatives on Friday night, I have come to the conclusion that, with a few exceptions, the members generally appeared to be rather hazy in their opinions as to the ultimate good the passing of such a Bill would do, I believe the passing of such a Bill will be of the utmost importance to the community at large. Mr. Rolleston, I am surprised to see, condemns the Bill entirely, and is reported to have said that “ This Bill is a miserable rechauffe of a Victorian Act, which, indeed, so far as he could gather, had been found to work exceedingly ill.” The Bill may be what Mr. Rolleston states, but I must take exception to his remarks anent the Victorian Act working ill, for to my personal knowledge the Act has been found to work exceedingly well. As the matter is now before the House perhaps a few particulars as to how charitable institutions are managed in Victoria may not be amiss at the present time. As lam more intimately acquainted with the working of the institutions in Ballarat, the largest mining centre in Victoria, I will endeavor to explain them. The charitable institutions there comprise—Hospital, Benevolent Asylum, and Orphan Asylum. The first and last named are incorporated by Act of Parliament for their better protection. Each institution is subsidized by the Government, the Hospital and Orphan Asylum to the extent of £2 for every £ collected or subscribed, and £3 tor every £ for the Benevolent Asylum, because its usefulness embraces a much larger area. Subscribers of a guinea and upwards elect annually from their number a president, two vice-presidents, and a committee to manage the respective institution. Each institution has also a secretary, who acts as collector, and whose business it is to canvass the townspeople for subscriptions, and also to make periodical excursions into the country districts for a like purpose. The mining companies contribute largely to the support of the hospital, and some of them also give assistance to the other institutions as well. The city, town, and shire councils contribute a stated sum annually, and the funds are further augmented by benefits in the shape of concerts and entertainments of various descriptions ; some are given voluntarily, while the secre- . taries promote others. The friendly and other societies vote, according to their means, a certain sum either yearly or half-yearly. The churches also make annual collections for each of the institutions. In any case, whether the money received is raised by annual subscriptions, donations, or entertainments, the Government subsidise to the extent named. Each annual subscriber of a guinea or upwards to these institutions has the privilege of recommending—tickets in the case of the hospital being issued to subscribers—persons for admission. In the hospital there is a resident medical officer and chemist and three or four visiting honorary surgeons, and’ persons suffering from disease can either be in or outdoor patients. The latter attend at the hospital, oh days appointed for the purpose, to receive medical advice and medicine. Persons who meet with accidents and the like are admitted at any time, day or night. The hospital also receives paying patients, which helps its support. The Benevolent Asylum has a larger field of operations, and consequently is more generally supported. It is the refuge for the aged, halt, and in many cases the blind, who are supplied as long as they behave themselves —with shelter aud all the necessaries of life. Outdoor relief is also given. On one or two days in the week, provisions, meat, wood, &c., are supplied in accordance with the number of the family ; so many pounds or ounces, as the case may be, of each article being allotted for the consumption of each individual for the week. Many families are almost entirely supported by this institution, from the fact of their desertion by their legitimate bread-winners. The city and town is divided into districts, and visitors to these districts are appointed from the committee to visit the persons who receive aid from the asylum, to protect it against'fraud, and to guide them in the apportionment of provisons, &c. Between 3000 and 4000 individuals are thus supplied weekly, irrespective of those living in the asylum, with assistance, and often the very necessaries of life. It is a <o-aud institution, and is very well supported by the public. The asylum has also three or four honorary medical officer, who each take week about in looking after the health of the inmates.

The work of the Orphan Asylum is not of so large or extensive a nature as the

Hospital or Benevolent Asylum ; but, never-., theleas, it is as useful in its own way. The children are clothed, fed, and educated up t<j a certain age, when they are apprenticed, the , boys to some trade and the girls to domestic service, the committee retaining a kind of parental control over’those apprenticed until the completion of their apprenticeships. > A committee of ladies is also appointed, styled the “boarding out committee, ’ who make it their business to periodically visit the children to see that they are properly cared for. In many instances children have been adopted, and a person adopting a child must give a guarantee to the committee to provide for it in every way, as would have been done if the child remained in the asylum. The committee are often relieved in this manner by persons taking a fancy to a child, and then adopting it. There is another institution, called the Ladies Benevolent Clothing Society, which is managed, as the name suggests, by a committee of ladies, and which is also subsidised by Government. The object of this society is to provide destitute families with bedding, blankets, clothing, and boots. I may state, for the information of Mr.|Rolleston, that denominational influence is not brought to bear in the government of these institutions, and persons are admitted irrespective of creed. Clergymen of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches i sit on these committees, and help to govern the institutions, for the benefit of the people, and not for any particular religion or sect. The association of the exponents of the different beliefs on these committees has not in any way created illfeeling ; on the contrary, it has tended to cement and engender a more Christian feeling among those holding opposite opinions on religious subjects. 1 If what 1 have written will in the smallest degree enlighten our legislators'as to the working of long organised charitable institutions, and so help them to frame and pass a Bill for the proper working of similar. institutions in this colony, I shall be satisfied. I have photographs of the institutions, whose working I have tried to lucidly describe, which may he seen by any person who takes an interest in such institutions. Apologising for treepassing so much on your valuable space,—l am, &c., A ‘Victorian.