THE KAITANGATA RELIEF FUND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5638, 25 April 1879, Page 7

THE KAITANGATA RELIEF FUND.

(From the Lyttelton Times of the 18th inst.) The handsome amount of the Kaitangata Belief Fund should encourage the, charitable, to sustained effort. Whenever the charitable' institutions of the colony are under discussion :—and few subjects have been more debated i during the last three years—the argument has | always been advanced that benevolence should \ have its place among the sources of mainte- : nance. It has been contended that, without [ charity, the word charitable has no right to appear in the matter shall; The expenditure o£ revenue derived from the Colonial Treasury, or the proceeds of a special rate, is the expenditure of sums which people are compelled to> pay, and which, consequently, are not free gifts. Taxation, moreover, whether special otr general, is a method of apportioning the contributions of the public which does not t ake count of the ability of each individual to give, but looks only to what the majority cannot give. A rate is a minimum contribution suited to the smallest purse. But the large purses should not be left out of the calculation. If rating alone is to be the source of so-called charitable funds, the amount of those funds will be less than it ought to be. And there is another theoretical argument advanced by the advocates of benevolence, which is that it is the duty of mankind to be charitable, and that facilities must be given for its exercise. Nor do they confine themselves, to the, theoretical. They affirm that throughout; th<e colony there exists a very wide-spread real desire ,to give, and they support their affirmatio n by citing the ' experience of civic officers, wl io receive many inquiries for information as to the beat channels for their alms, and they point to the success of the various appeals for relief. And everybody knows that no one who takes round a subscription-list returns empty handed, and ‘ the striking success of carnivals and. similar demonstrations is too familiar to require comment. Both theory and practice point, then, to the necessity of placing benevolence amongst the sources: of the supply for the Charitable Institutions of the colony. For the Kaitangata sufferers there are, as we learned the other day, actually in hand, between £6OOO and £BOOO, and the amount is expected, when all the subscriptions promised are received, to reach nearly £12,000. It may be said that this great success is.due of course to the special occasion which called, forth, in perhaps an extraordinary degree," the. sympathy and pity of the people. If this be granted, it .would follow that an annual demonstration throughout the colony , would: realise [something less than the amount of the Kaitangata Relief Fund. But the experiment of an. annual carnival for the ordinary charitable institutions of the" colony is

worth making nevertheless. It may not produce £12,000 this year or next—it must be borne in mind that the population of the colony is increasing—but it is sure to realise a handsome annual sum. There are many opportunities, for the people gather together every year in large numbers on many occasions, spending their money freely. We hope the matter will not be lost sight of.