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West Coast Times, Issue 391, 24 December 1866, Page 2 (Supplement)

At a mecb iri S convened by the Superintendent and held u U Tavanalri for the llfch inst., for the purpose 0/ devising means to relieve the dreadful destitiu' 1011 saidt « he & existence there, the first resolu(n/ n Proposed was that a committee should be Qj^ourted to enquire what eases of distress there \ vere m existence requiring relief. This was su^P orted ty a gentleman named Hiilke, in the Rowing remarkable speech, which shows that ulOu 10 ' m P°" sition fo notoriously practised upon the Aucklaud Government is being attempted n^* 1011 that of New Plymouth. Mr Hulke said, be ' fore auj proposition was put to the meeting as to what form of relief should be provided for the destitute, perhaps it would be best to take tho sense of the meeting as to what constituted destitution ; because a great difference of opinion existed in this Province as to what destitiition was. He made this proposition for the reason that, during a part of the war, he was Chairman of the Board for the distri- j bufion of charitable aid, and persons came to ■ that Board applying for relief who, to his certain knowledge, had ample means. He woulJ only mention three cases. One man had a farm of level land containing 100 acres ; he possessed 200 or 300 sheep ; and had a banking account with LIOOO to his credit, and yet he applied for charitable aid ! (Loud laughter.) The circumstances of another applicant were inquired into, and it was found liii had an income of L 3 a week, perhaps rather more. His excuso wa3 that he had a family to maintain ; that fresh butter was 4s a pound, and he always used 41bs. a week ; that cheese was dear, and so on (laughter). Another applicant was in constant work at 83 a day— he •(Mr Hulke) was not certain, but thought he had only two children, and when asked why he applied, said although he was in work then he did not know how long he should continue so, and it was only right he should put something by for that time. When they had cases like that, he thought the meeting should know what destitution meant. Wince the time he had referred to he had been appointed trustee for the distribution of a certain fund raised in Nelson to assist persons to go back to their farms. Now, this was not like applying for relief j but ho thought some men ha>d sh wed little self-respect in applying for a bhare of this fund, as they had ample means. Mr Hulke then quoted two or three instances to prove his assertion, without giving the persons names. People should know what destitution meant if they had to put their hands in their pockets to pay for it — (hear, hear,) — and also enquire how those persons had been brought destitute — whether from the effects of unfortunate circumstances over which they had no control. But if it had been brought on from drink, then they should enquire, " How is this ?" and not tax the sober man to support the families of drunkards. "We must deal with drunkenness in a different manner. They had gone on h*eating it for twenty years as a crime ; they must now -turn round and treat it as a disease. If they did so he was sure they would cure it — if they treated it as a lunacy, and shaved the heads of drunkards, as had been done in a regiment, blistered them, and kept them on low diet. Newspaper correspondents appear pretty well to understand their relationship one to another — their common duties — which seem to be to get as much space as they possibly can in the prints they address, without paying for it ; to treat public journals, in fact, as though they were public property, which they are not. Of their duties to newspaper proprietors, however, they are very oblivious, or choose to be very oblivious. They seem to have a notion in their heads that they have as good a right to use your pages as to use a public road. But as they pay their shares towards making and keeping in repair the latter, either in the form of turnpike toll or highway rate, and never make their appearance on Saturday night for then' quota towards the week's wages of our compositors, reporters, machinemen, &c, wo refuse to see any parallel between ourselves and a publi" thoroughfare. We deny their right to stalk through us, or to drink through us ; nay, more, we insist upon it that people generally have no more reason to expect that they should use our columns unless we in courtesy choose to permit them, or they, as advertisers, choose to pay for them, than they have to wear our Sunday coat, or insist upon sitting down with us to our Sunday joint. We should not mind the latter, with an old and pleasant friend — one willing to dispense with ceremony, to dine between services, and not expect more than one plain pudding. But correspondents arc not always pleasant, and far from being profitable. Courage, too — moral courage, we mean — is not a quality they abound in, they sometimes like to 6ay sharp and saucy things, to another keep their incognito, and withhold their card if you will let them do so. Like Teucer, they like to use a broad-sheet as he did the broad shield of Ajax — as a shelter under which to fly the arrows. But if anything anpleasant happens to rise out of the effusions, they have at times a great reluctance to stan.i forth and face tho consequences. Not only is the editor exported to find paper, types, and ink for their amusement, but to bear the brunt and tho blame of whatever they put forth. One would have thought that by this time people understood this. Nevertheless, if at this moment you refuse a long-winded or unmannerly scribbler the use of your columns he talks largely about the right of public discussion, and vapors indignantly against your denial, as though you were the Post Office and would not carry his letters or the dispensary doctor and declined to visit a patient upon *ho recommendation of a, «üb»criber. — Bristol Paper.