The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1887. BENEVOLENT AID.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2540, 4 March 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1887. BENEVOLENT AID.

■ ' » ... 'The Trustees of the North Wairarapa Benevolent Society were divided in opinion at thoir late meeting, as to whether it wag desirable or not to publish the names of recipients of Charitable Aid, The majority of them were against publicity on this point, and as the task whioh.they ha,ve to discharge is a most difficult Spue, we willingly, as far as we are ooitoerned, comply with thoir desire for seoreoy. There are, however, strong grounds for believing that publicity, would, in many instances exercise a beneficial influenco .on their operations; The expenditure of the Society is,a cumulative one,;, ; ani:we : beheve.it now amounts to about fifteori pounds per week. Probably, as long a3 the Society; has resources to fall back upon, it will' continue to increase, bccauseVwhen ; .it' is understood that allowances of from five to fifte.en shillings per. .week can. bo .obtained from the Society 7 by pri-j yat« solicitation, {hero $$J .itfwavß bo;

candidates for them. That.the Society exercises care in the selection of cases we do not doubt, but iri spite of this, it is. ;.known r that in some instances it is .misled. • There ' are''"cases in -'the hands of the Society, =which are>lso being .relieved aimul-'taneously.'by-private benfevolericßj and thus some recipients of aid are in clover. We heard the other day of one destitute mother of a family who returned a bag of flour to a generous donor on the pretext that it had been tampered "with 'by mice!' : We are not at .all .sure but that a little healthy publicity applied to cases of tins description' would dp good. On the other hand, publicity might prevent ■ some persons from applying for relief''who were really destitute, but who were ashamed to disclose their poverty. This would be very uudosirable, but, on the whole, it might bo a. less evil than tho other' alternative whioh publicity tends to oheok, and that is administering publio relief to recipients who possess other resources whioh it is to their interest to conceal from' the Society. . The amount now being expended by the North Wairarapa Benevolent Society is somewhat large, but we don't think the public will objeotto it so long as thoy are assured that the;cases to whioh it is applied are deserving ones. Publicity and publicity alone will give this assurance, and possibly the Society may .yet find it necessary to reverse the decision on this point recorded at the late meeting,