The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1886. CHARITABLE AID.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1484, 25 March 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1886. CHARITABLE AID.

Thb illustrious Mr Bumble, under whose fostering care Oliver Twist flourished, used to • say that “ out-of-door relief properly managed is the parochial safeguard. The great principle of out-of-door relief is to give to the paupers exactly what they don’t want and then they get tired of coming.” The members of, the South Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, appear to bare studied pretty closely the principles of economy laid down by the immortal Mr Bumble. When they took off ce a fm months ago, they went to work exactly on tbe lines laid down by Mr Bumble, and gave to the unfortunate recipients of charitable aid what in'many instances did not soil them. We pointed out this-at the time and drew attention to the fact that they had reduced tbe allowances in many instances to nearly one-half of what the Government had previously been giving. The allowances were reduced in one case from £2 to £1 3s per month ; in another from £1 10s to 17s 8d ; and similar reductions were made throughout. And moreover these allowances were given in food, nothing, being allowed for fuel, clothing, and other things necessary to existence. Another thing was, tbe goods were to be obtainable only from certain storekeepers, and this inflicted a great hardship on people living at a distance from these stores. For instance, recipients of charitable aid living at Winchester or Waitohi had to come into Teniuka to get their stores, and if they were too infirm to walk wore put to a great disadvantage. We pointed all this out, and urged the hardships the system inflicted on the

attention of the Board, and we are glad tbe subject baa received some attention. The Her. Mr Hamilton, who never seems to tira of doing something to benefit the poor and needy, took tbe matter up, and made strong representations to the Board on the subject, with the result that it is probable the first rules will be somewhat relaxed, Mr Hamilton has received the following letter from the Secretary to tbe Board S.C. Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, . Feb. 17tb, 1886. To the Rev, Mr Hamilton, Temuka. Sirti —I have the honor to acknowledge tbe receipt of your letter dated 21*t January, 1886, referring to the supply of rations by the aboVe Board to deatitute parsons in the Temuka district, and have been Instructed by the Board to hand you the following copy of a resolution passed at its meeting on tbe 16th instant, via.—“ That in reply to the Rev. Mr Hamilton, he be informed that the Board are willing to consider each individual case of charitable aid on its merit, and will grant part or the whole of such aid in cash if it be deemed the case requires it. In the matter of certain.articles of rations being unsuitable, the recipient ie at liberty to take other articles instead, and the contractor ie bohfid to supply such other articles at scheduled prices, a copy of which can be seen »,t the various police stations,’’—l have, etc,, Edwin H. Lou«k, Secretary.

Thia is certainly an improvement, but we submit that in many instances the allowances are not sufficient. For instance, a poor woman with a family ot four children gets only £1 8a per month. We know of another poor old woman, of over 80 years, whose allowance has been reduced from 5s to 2s $d per month, This poor woman has no one belppgiag to her to take cars of her, and is unable to do anything for herself—and all she is allowed is 2a Id per month. Of ceurse she would starve only for the charity of people who have to earn their own living bard enough, and who have taken her into their household and cared for her. We know of a poor old man also, who gets only 3s per month. Hitherto they have been receiving thia in food, but apparently, from what is stated in the letter above quoted, there if a disposition on the part of the Board not to stick to cast-iron roles—-but give more consideration to the necessities and requirements of these poor people. We hope they will do so, and that they will succeed m ministering to the com* fort of the poor and helpless.

TIMARU WOOLLEN FACTORY. The Timaru Woollen Factory has at last commenced work. It has been working for the last week, and it is a remarkable fact that the Tiuiaru papers have not taken the alightest notice of it. Not a single sentence has appeared in any of the papers about it; in fact they seem to ignore it, and even to desire that it should not prove successful. When it was at firat proposed the Timaru Herald poo-poohed it because the ring would have nothing to do with it. The ring made an effort to start a factory on their own account and failed, and consequently wanted to throw cold water on the efforts which ths people put forth to establish one. The South Cantetbury Times sheered at it because it would not advertise, and took no interest in it; in fact, both papers appeared desirous of crushing it. Following this laudable policy, they bare seen the building erected, and the. machinery placed in position, and the work of teasing, carding, spinning and weaving commenced without making the slightest reference to it. This ia disgraceful en the part of those papers. We have frequently insisted that the caaee of no industries being established in Timaru was because the papers there paid so little attention to the matter, and it appears that this proves it. Both papers have tried their hardest at crushing this paper out of existence ; there is not a dodge they could think of they have not resorted to, in the vain hope that they would work us out of the field, but the more they have tried that game the more the people of this district attach themselves to us. The people of this district know very well that it is very little attention they would get paid to them if this paper were out of the field. Recently the Herald baa sent out here a peripatetic quidnunc, who keeps floating about as aimlessly as a Jack-o’-lantern. Now you see him, now you don’t. He has noticed a Statiomuaster driving a now out of a railway station, but he is blind to the fact that there are very important local industries going ahead in this district. Not one word has been written abont our industries. Would it not be better for the Herald to look after the Timaru Woollen Factory and such things than to watch; stationmasters driving cows out of railway stations I . But with regard to the Timaru Wollen Factory it has grown into existence in spite of The pahhrs. Mr Clapham, who must get the brad ft of being the mainspring of the movement which brought it into existence,'can well congratulate himself now on the success he has achieved. He has seen rise up a splendid building, and he has erected therein the most improved and moat modern machinery that could be found at less than half the cost of the Oamaru Factory. The factory at Oamaru, plant and all, cost about £21,000; a building and plant as good, if not better, in Timaru coat only about £9OOO. Tnis may safely be said to be due in a great measure to the fact that Mr Olapham is* a thoroughly practical man, and went Home and purchased the machinery very advantageously. The strictest economy and the greatest care has been bestowed on the industry from the beginning, end enccees is the result. Another fact which may as well bo mentioned is that it has entered upon a branch of the woollen industry not touched by any of the factories already in existence. It has commenced to make worsted coatings—an article which is in great demand and ought to pay. We had not sufficient time at our bands when we visited the Factory on Tuesday to get a full description of it, but we asceitained that there were in it two sets of carding machines, IJOO spindles, and 14 looms, together with the necessary plant appertaining thereto. The machinery is working re-

markably well, Down stairs, on the ground floor, is a place where the wool is scoured and washed. It is taken next to a place over the furnace, where it is dried and then put into the tensers, where tbe raattsd locks are carded out, Thie machine pitches it out on the adjoining floor like flakes of snow, and from this it is taken to the first carding machine. This machine resembles very much the carding machine at the Temuka i Linseed Factory, The wool is placed on a moving apron which feeds it slowly into cards. From tho first cards it goes on to the second or finer cardf, out of which it pours in beautiful soft sheets, which are automatically placed over one another. From this it goes on to the finishing cards, out of which it eomes worked up into untwisted threads called “sliver” and then it is fit to go to the spinning room upstairs. One man works all these cards, and does not appear to have very hard work, as they act automotically. The “sliver” is taken upstairs to a spinning frame containing 480 spindles. This runs along the whole length of the room for a distance of nearly 100 feet, and only two men are necessary to look after it. There are some other minor processes it goes through till at last it finds its way into tho looms where it is woven ihto cloth. One satisfactory feature of the enterprise is that out of the £9OOO it has cost, £6OOO has been subscribed already, and it is probable that now when people see it in full working order, and likely to be successful, the balance of the shares will betaken up. It is certainly an industry of great importance to the district, and we trust its career will be prosperous.