The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 265, 17 April 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1875.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no mail justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

The dispensation of charity, in the shape of alms giving, and other eleemosynary aid to the poor and needy, and those that are afflicted or distressed in mind or body, is a question in which outlying districts, such as Poverty Bay is, ought to take iu hand at the very earliest opportunity. The imperative duty that rests with society to make some decent provision for the necessitous portion of it, is one, the very magnanimity of which, will cause individual members of a community to take up unequal shares of the burden, some from the force of a noble example, others from an innate Christian philanthropy, and a sacrificial tender heartedness and sympathy for the sufferings of others. As society grows ; as the circumference of communities enlarge; in other words, as population increases, human nature will ever be at war with circumstance, and we, like the rest of the world, must expect that, as there are hills and valleys in the universe, so surely will there be found a steadily-increas-ing number of the pauper class. We do not use the ugly word in any offensive sense. Poverty is no disgrace to the man who keeps his hands clean; ean look his honest neighbor in the face, and, not contented to cat the bread of idleness, manfully battles with misfortune. But the battle — that is, victory in battle—-is not always with the strong. Far be it from us to say aught that would hurt the sensitiveness which poverty is sure to beget, when allied to integrity, and a patient, wearying, non-productivc toiling for daily bread, with sickness as its gaunt companion. But the fact still remains. There are paupers, and paupers; and the Christian work of individuals is to support, and, if need be, to supplement the social obligation of Governments in alleviating their distress as much as possible. Our duty now is not so much to expose, or explain, the causes which induce pauperism, as to draw public notice to the fact that it exists in our midst to a painful extent, and that no provision whatever has been made by the authorities to deal with it. Our attention has been often drawn to this matter before ; and now we have the authority of the Resident Magistral e, for bringing it more prominently forward. Dr. Nesbitt informs us that there are four persons at the present moment under his charge stricken with sickness, helplessly poor, and entirely dependent upon charity for the means of subsistence, to say nothing of medical comforts. For one of these invalids a subscription was raised last week, when a sum of about £7 was collected, and the patient has been temporarily placed in one of the Immigrants’ Cottages ; but neither of these arrangements can either last long or be repeated indefinitely, while it is unsatisfactory to the last degree that families should be exposd, in the future occupancy of the Immmigration quarters, to infectious and contagious diseases. If one of the buildings is to be used as a hospital it should be permanently set aside for that purpose. We do not say that contagious diseases exist there at present, but if the practice is continued, we do not know where the danger may begin—decidedly not where it will end. This is, substantively, a question that requires the consideration of the Provincial Government, so that some provision may be made to meet fresh cases as they arise. And it is hardly sufficient to know that patients may be sent either to the Auckland or Napier hospital. What is to become of them in the meantime ? As matters stand at present, Dr. Nesbitt is the first applied to, not only for medicine, but for food, and raiment, and shelter. The Doctor’s goodness of heart is proverbial, for he sendeth not the empty away, but this has now become so great a tax that a limit must imperatively be put to its imposition. The instance we have already quoted furnishes an illustration. A patient arrives in town suffering from para

lysis. He is without means ; he has no home —an abject pauper. There is no hospital; the gaol has no accommodation ; the poor sufferer has to remain on the floor of the vehicle that brought him to town, in the open street, while the hand of private charity maketh a bed for him to lie on. Dr. Nesbitt has no public means at his disposal, and in nine cases out of ten, he unostentatiously relieves the applicant from his private purse. This is not as it should be. The matter must be brought before the Government at once, with a view to the addition of a hospital ward being made to the Provincial Governmentbuildings which some day or other may be built in Gisborne. Mr. J. Woodbine Johnson will, doubtless, make this one of his duties at the forthcoming session, but it should betaken in hand at once, say by Dr. Nesbitt himself, so that the Provincial Executive may make a recommendation to the Provincial Council in framing their estimates. It is estimated that £lOO a year would amply provide both medicine and attendance for some time to come.

In the meantime we would appeal to the public to allow the matter to engage their attention a little, with a view to making some arrangement which will disburse the obligation of providing W'Jour indigent invalids ; and the better to bring so laudable an object into proper focus, we would suggest that our amateur Musical Society should give an entertainment for the purpose of forming the nucleus of a fund from which to dispense the various comforting necessities which the afflicted, in whose cause alone we write, stand so much in need of.

So the deputation farce is over, and, “ as you were ” is the order of the day. Yesterday at 2 o’clock, several gentlemen took upon themselves the rather difficult task of representing the settlers without the slightest authority, in attempting to bring before Sir Donald McLean’s notice certain matters of the gravest importance to the district, but which they showed pretty plainly they either imperfectly understood , or felt unequal to the occasion of successfully arguing. As far as results go, all that occurred at yesterday’s meeting might as well —- nay better —have been left alone. The deputation (so called for want of a better term) must have felt small indeed, as they found themselves outwitted at every turn, by this great master of diplomatic tact. But we have no more patience than we have space to report fully on this failure which was apparent from tho beginning. We trust the settlers willlook to this self-elected deputation for an explanation as to why they betrayed their trust, and did not invite Sir Donald to meet the settlers in terms of a resolution passed last November; and we take this opportunity of contradicting, by authority, the statement which we reported last Wednesday, that Sir Donald refused, or had even expressed a wish not to meet the settlers. He was perfectly willing to hear the settlers at a public meeting, but deferred, from courtesy, to the wish of him or them who represented the deputation, not to do so. We shall have a little more to say on this question, shortly ; in the meantime we ask the settlers to think for themselves.