THE WANDERER.

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 148, 3 June 1892, Page 2

THE WANDERER.

What is Charitable Aid in Auckland ? Branding- an unfortunate fellow-being who is poor as a pauper and publishing the fact in the public journals. What is a pauper? A fellowbeing -who has become too poor and feeble to exist without assistance, and is therefore looked upon as hut one step above a criminal, and the fact of whose poverty is blazoned forth in the newspapers as an exceedingly interesting item of news. Hard hitting no doubt, hut it’s true. How often do we hear of some unfortunate who has been stricken with some severe illness. He is too poverty stricken to pay for medical aid, and consequently has to he bundled off to the hospital. The Counly Council are called upon to pay the hospital charges, and full reports of the affected one’s poverty and distress are published in the local and city papers. Surely the sufferer has sufficient to boar without having his poverty held up to the public gaze in such an abominable manner. Is this the way Charitable Aid is dispensed in New Zealand ? If it is then I should say, ‘ God help those who may be so unfortunate as to require the aid.’ The whole thing is a wretched farce, and the sooner it is altered the better. It has generally been stated that poverty is no siu. No ! but it appears to be mighty adjacent to a crime. A wealthy citizen dies leaving a large sum of money to be expended on various Charitable objects, among- other things a home was to be built for the aged and infirm. The home is built, and. many applicants seek admission, hut here our boasted charity steps in again and the applicants are promptly tokl they cannot and will not be admitted unless they are prepared to pay the s m of len shillings per week for their keep. Again what a farce, the name of that home is spelt with a letter too many. iff *l* '■¥

On one occasion when in Auckland I attended ap evening- service at one of the Anglican Ch»rcbe/», I am quite prepared to admit that I do not trouble Apgjicari Churches much —too much of the ritualistic nonsense about most of them for my taste—but on the occasion, mentioned

I not only attended but sat the service out, the Parson preached a very passable sermon and did not fail to touch up his hearers on the subject ef charity, your readers may judge how eloquent he grew on this subject when he actually wrung a threepenny bit out of the ‘ Wanderer, ’ but as I strolled homewards I could not help thinking- to myself that it was all very well for Mr Parson dressed in his broadcloth, with comfortable home, good fat salary and living- on the best products of the land, to preach and prate about charity, but how often during the year would his own name appear on any of the lists for charitable purposes. It’s all very well Messrs Parsons for you to preach charity but some good, downright practical proofs of your own charitable inclinations would do more good to the poor and needy than a cart load of sermons, if you think charity commences at home send some of your own, if you have any, out on a hunting expedition among the poor and see what good it will do.

If there is anything I delight in it is to see a man stick by his colours, Well done ! old patriarch, you stuck to yours light manfully, and smote the enemy hip and thigh. By all that’s good, what right had a nezuman to attempt to do business in the glorious city of monoply ? Bah ! the idea is absurd, preposterous, but hold hard old fellow, how- will all this fit in with certain eloquent (?) utterances made somewhere about election time when we were told that all monoply was to cease, old things were to pass away and all things to become new. It is a difficult puzzle to work out and the old ‘ Wanderer ’ gives it up. It would take a publican or a sinner to manage it, and I won’t publicly own up to being either of these.

While in conversation with a storekeeper up North a few days ago, he expressed his gratitude for the leader in the Be lx, re the goods shed and station at Opanake. It certainly is a crying shame that goods sent to Opanake should have to remain in an open waggon on account of there not being any goods shed to place them in. As things are at present goods are left partly exposed to the weather and entirely at' the mercy of any dishonest parties who may be prowling around. Some of the storekeepers have bittarly complained to me of goods stolen and losses incurred through petty thefts at Opanake terminus. As for the passengers, well let them stand out in all weathers waiting for the train, let them catch La Grippe or any

other Grip and die off, New Zealand is over popullfcad, a few less inhabitants or ratepayers wont mHher, our unfortunate Government have to’cut ana contrive to get sufficent ‘ filthy lucre ’ to pay the extra screw to members. What a splendid lot, of electors we are to he grilled by a lot of electioneering claptrap, about heart and soul voting for retrenchment, there’s no denying the, fact its a glorious land we live in, that is for members of parliament with a loud and long tongue.

Another suicide and another verdict of temporary insanity. Last September the man was committed to the Asylum, in May he is nassed out as cured, within a week after his liberation he in a fit of madness cuts his throat, but this is not all, for there is not the slightest doubt but that judging by the persistent way he tried to get hold of his gun and from remarks that he made, that he meant mischief to at least one other party in Kaihu, and had Mr Raynes have handed the weapon over there was certainly one other person in the place who stood a good show of losing the number of his mess It is devoutly to be hoped that a searching enquiry will be made into the conduct of the Asylum authorities in discharging Bould, for cases of this sort cause strong feelings of uneasiness. In the present case one naturally asks himself the question, who were the biggest lunatics, the Asylum officials or the unfortunate suicide ? If put to the vote I believe nine tenths of the voters would plump for the officials—l would.