CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 18

CHARITABLE AID BOARD.

The monthly meeting of the Charitable Aid Board was held on February 27, and attended by Messrs M. Steven6on, J. Mill, J. Hazlett, P. Miller, W. J. Burk. J. H. Walker, J. Clark, T. Aitken, D. Ross, and Dr Batchelor. FINANCIAL. The Finance Commitee reported having examined accounts amounting to £1671 9s 5d (charitable aid £1537 12s 6d and maternity home £133 17s 6d), and recommended that the same be passed for payment. The receipts for January were £1260 15s 4d, and the bank book on February 25 showed a credit balance of £476 18s 3d. — The report was adopted. MATERNITY HOSPITAL. The Maternity Hospital Committee reported as follows: — "The alterations and additions to the Maternity Hospital approved of at the last meeting of the board have been carried out, and add considerably to the convenience of working the institution. Since the last meeting of the board 10 oases have been attended in the hospital. Two additional probationer nurses (Misses Robertson and Simpson) have been appointed. Your committee recommends that the wards be now painted : the original painting was not completed, as the wails had not sufficiently dried. This work is specially desirable at present, as several oases of influenza have ooourred in the wards, which have been a source of some anxiety; painting would be a most effective form of disinfection. The reserve fund is more than ample to carry out this work. The total amount received as payments from patients up to date is £55 — this does not include voluntary donations. There are eight patients at present in the hospital." — The report, with the recommendation regarding painting, waa adopted. ST. MARY'S ORPHANAGE. The Secretary for Education wrote, with reference to the subject of the deputation whioh waited on the Right Hon. the Prime Minister on December 9 last, that he was directed by the Minister of Education to Inform the board tKa.t the matter ia.d engaged the earnest attention of the Government, and it had been decided, with regret, that the request that St. Mary's Orphanage, Dunedin, be approved of as a private industrial school could not be complied with. On the motion of Mr Mosley, it was resolved — ■" That a deputation consisting of the chairman, Dr Batohelor, and Mr Miller, and any country member who can attend, wait on the Minister of Education when he comes to Dunedin in March and press strongly upon him the claims of St. Mary's Orphanage and other similar insti- | tutione to oe put on an equal footing with St. Vincent de Paul Society at South Dunedin and the Stoke Orphanage at Nelson. ADMINISTRATION OF OUTDOOR RELIEr. The Chairman said that he was given to understand that if the board again waited on the Benevolent Trustees with a request that the latter body undertake the administration of charitable aid In Dunedin and suburbs the request would be complied with, The counties of Maniototo, Bruce, Waihemo, and Clutha had agreed to administer their own charitable aid, whilst the Board would b*ve to perform that work for Tuapeka, Taieri, Waikouaiti, and Vincent. Mr Miller thought the matter should be relegated to a small committee, and that all counties should be writes to, pointing

| out the advantage that would be derive** if 1 each county undertook the work of administering- the charitable aid within its boundaries. Personally, he did I not favour the system, but it having been decided upon, he thought they should give it a fair trial. It would also bo necessary, he thought, fox the counties to have a conference in order to arrange a system of uniformity of assistance, so that one county would not be paying 7s a week and another county adjoining perhaps 10s a week to cases of a similar nature. He thought it was very inadvisable that some * oounties should administer the charitable aid whilst in other counties it was done by the board. He accordingly moved that the matter of outdoor relief be relegated to a small committee. Mr Clark advocated the board administering all charitable aid, without any intervention by the oounties or any other body. The Chairman said that the majority of the Benevolent Trustees were quite willing to work with the Charitable Aid Board. He agreed that the best thing would be to have the matter first of all left in the hands ctf a small committee. Mr Hazlett said it would be a good thins to get the trustees to attend to the matter. Nothing would be wasted then. The Secretary at this stage read a letter from* the secretary of the Benevolent Trustees, asking the views of the board on the position in the light of the Supreme Court iudgment. The Trustees had acted for the board this week, and awaited notification of the views of the board. Mr Miller said they should resolve to request the Benevolent Trustees to administer outdoor charitable relief for Dunedin and suburbs. Mr Walker thought they were a little too previous in this matter.' The proper course was to ask the trustees to meet ihe board in •conference bo that the whole matter could be threshed out. He desired to move an amendment to that effect, but the Chairman declined to accept it on the ground that they had previously agreed that the counties agreeable shouid administer their charitable aid, and that in other counties it should be administered by the board, and that Dunedin and suburbs should be administered by the Benevolent Trustees. It was ultimately resolved — " That the Benevolent Trustees be asked to distribute outdoor relief in Dunedin and suburbs, and that the counties that have refused to distribute charitable aid be requested to reconsider the matter; further, that a committee consisting' of the whole board be set up to carry the foregoing into effect.