COLONIAL PAUPERISM. Auckland, Nov. 2.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 417, 6 November 1889, Page 4

COLONIAL PAUPERISM. Auckland, Nov. 2.

Thk usual fortnightly meeting of the Devonport Mutual Improvement Society was held last evening, when Mr 0. Maya delivered an address on "Colonial Pauporisim.' The Rev. Jos. Bates occupied the char,' and tLere was an attendance of about 30 persons. Mr Mays said he proposed to inquire how it was that there were in a new country like New Zealand so many people who lived on their neighbours' thrift and industry without themselves working. The population regulated by the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board was about 83.000, and of that number 1,300 received charitable aid. This was a loss proportion than existed 3 or 4 years ago. If the same ratio existed over the colony there would be 9 or 10 thousand paupers costing £90,00? or £100,000 a year. Last year chantage aid in Auckland district cost £12,241, distributed as follows : Pauper patients « Hospital, £4,649; persons in Refuges, <1,963 ; school, and orphanges, £1,116; outdoor relief, £4,413. The city and suburbs did not cost nearly so much in pioportion as the outside districts. Mr M*,y S quoted figures to prove this statement. About 4 years ago the pi esent Charitable Aid Bill was pa^&ed to stem the swelling tide ot pauperism. The Government thre^v half the cost of charitable aid on local bodies, and the effect of the Act had in the main been good. The present Act would expire in about a year, and it was probable that an attempt would be made to throw the whole cost on local bodies. This would be a step in the right direction, as it would save expense, and bring the cases of applicants under the direct notice of the local people, a result of which would be that better insight into the deserts of claimants would be afforded, Auckland had got rid of many loafers by a firm refusal to aid able • bodied men ; but there were clashes of poor that they could not get rid 01,o 1 , as the children of disreputable parents. A good deal of good had been done with these, however, by boarding thorn out with respectable settlers, and the cost of this was less than the wholesale system at Kohimarama. He also referred to the Refuges for old and infirm as being necessary, and the difficulty of getting the pauper eleinont out of the Hospital. He said that of the average number of patients receiving treatment in the Hospital, about 75 per cent, contributed nothing to their support, and many were quite content to remain there by the year if allowed. Imposture was very difficult to detest and the remedies for professional pauperism were difficult to find. He would say, get rid of State charity in toto, and do away with Charitable Aid Boards. A system of local control, with energetic committees to distribute the funds and watch imposture, he thought the best plan under present conditions to alleviate if not extirpate this evil. At the conclusion Mr Mays was loudly applauded.