NO OVERLAPPING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1054, 19 August 1930, Page 7

NO OVERLAPPING

CO-ORDINATION OF SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS APPOINTMENT OF REGISTRAR To co-ordinate the social organisations of the city, and prevent overlapping in the relief of distress. Mr. William Woodhead was appointed yesterday as a registrar. His register j will embrace the names of every per- j son who has been on the books of j any organisation, including the Auck- • land Hospital Board. In future a name will appear on one j list only, instead of many, as is the j case at present, and when an application is made by a stranger to any of the organised workers, he will ring up the registrar and find if the person has been known elsewhere in the city. The question of those who have been exploiting social relief organisations in the past has been discussed j by the Rev. Jasper Calder in the J “Drifter,” the journal of the Anglican j City Mission. He points out that ; many amateur relief workers are ! “taken in” by hardened exploiters of ! charity. AMATEURS DELUDED “Time and time again we a, feverish ring from some person tell- ■ ing us to go at once to No. ”9 such- J and-such a street because a woman \ and family of young children are just j about to be turned out of their house; tho bailiff is in; they have neither food nor furniture —not even one rug between them,” he says. “This kind • of news almost invariably comes just j before the week-end. or just as we • are closing down for the night. “The messenger, who is often a bit ' chary about giving her name, informs . us that she has been helping this case for some considerable time, and as- • sures us that the people are thoroughly ; deserving, and that the thing is desperate. When we make a little further inquiry, and get the name of the ' family, we frequently find that it is an old case, thoroughly well known to us j —people who have had food and clothing either from ourselves or some other ! social agency, and we know all about j them that there is to know." “They should use their heads as t well as their hearts.” said Mr. Calder. “Even bodies which might be expected ; to be businesslike have been imposed upon. Now and again we hear of. j say, 50 families in dire want in one j district. I guarantee that there are j not 50 unknown to the social organisa- i tions in the whole city.”