Auckland’s Bill for Charity

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 46, 17 May 1927, Page 8

Auckland’s Bill for Charity

Close on £50,000 a Year

THE bill for charity dispensed in Auckland in a year runs into big figures. Between March 31, 1926, and March 31, 1927, the Auckland Hospital Board expended £26,665 in charitable aid. Its efforts are supplemented by the Salvation Army, City Mission, and Benevolent Society, and by private efforts. Plus the value of gift clothes, food, fuel and other necessities that are distributed, the annual outlay is probably close to £50,000.

ENDEAVOUR finds expression in many forms. The Hospital Board’s rationing system is supported by the Salvation Army’s family visits, by the City Mission’s soup kitchens and shelters, and by the work of the Benevolent Society, which spends about £I,OOO every year. The extent of the gift organisation perfected by the Salvation Army gives it the benefit of a constant stream of donations of food and clothing. Its activities cannot be measured in terms of cash expenditure only, for parcels of clothing are always going out, while human sympathy and kindness, wliich no money can purchase, go together with the more tangible commodities, and are as welcome. Since last October the Salvation Army has been in touch with 1,648 impoverished individuals or families, and its cash outlay in the period was £285 12s. In a period of three months 700 parcels of clothing were distributed, and there were 960 calls at the office. Just lately 30 bags of coal have been sent out, and groceries and meat distributed. “DOWN AND OUTERS” Major Annie Gordon, the Good Samaritan of scores of poor families, believes this winter will not bring to light so distress as last. That is the opinion she has formed from her recent observations. Moreover, she discounts the theory that acute distress cases signify ruin and decay in the social and economic system. “You will always have the down and outers,” she said, “whether times are good or bad.” Like the Hospital Board, the Salvation Army has found that distress and poverty recur in families, from whom, by some mischance of birth or environment, the divine faculty of rising to better things has been withheld. The Auckland Hospital Board last year estimated that its charitable aid expenditure would be £20,000. Unemployment in the winter raised the outlay to £26,665, of which the Gov-

eminent remitted a meagre £I.SOO. Provision set aside for the current year is £22,0C0. but in view of the unemployment situation the board looks to the Government for a supplementary contribution. A CROSS-SECTION Saturday morning at the board’s office is a busy day. Before the counter congregate the regular recipients of aid from the board. About such a group there is a poignant sadness. Want has carved deep lines on the faces of some; others, beyond shabby clothes, show no signs of care; others, again, are outwardly prosperous. Children clinging to the skirts of harassed mothers accentuate the pathos of the situation. Some of those who accept the alms of the State have descended from luxury; others know little else but need. The power to work is not in the blood of families which have been getting aid for generations. As far back as the great grandfather of the present beneficiaries goes the Hospital Board’s association with one Auckland family. Then there occur cases where the capacity to rise is evident. The son of a widow in desperate circumstances showed such talent that well-wishers assisted him. He has since matriculated, and is on the way to suecess.

Harsh humanity and the incomprehensible scheme of things seem to demand that in times of trial women shall shoulder the burden. At any rate it is women with whom the charitable aid officers are principally associated. This one was deserted by an adulterer, that one has a husband behind prison bars. One woman was maimed because a careless surgeon left a surgical needle in her abdomen. It was finally located near the spine, but the victim is now crippled and helpless. Another penniless woman was the wife of a Charitable Aid Board official in another part of New Zealand. She is now—such is the irony of circumstance —assisted by the Auckland Board.