The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1889. The United District Board.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3149, 9 March 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1889. The United District Board.

The Wairarapa is now engaged in a somewhat futile contest with 'that ' ogre, the United District Board, and a conference of local bodies takes . place on Tuesday next to decido whether the warfare is to bo prolonged or whether the demand, which has been endorsed by a legal injunction, shall be complied with. Any further ! struggle will probably be simply in the direction of supplying public funds for thecontinuauceof a hopeless contest. 'More money may be spent on lawyers, and more on Supreme Court officials, with the inevitable result that the demand made must be ultimately met. The law is on 1 the side of the District Board, and, as we take it, the object of the local bodies in this district is not to defy the law, but merely to emphasise the fact that the- law requires to be amended. Local bodies place themselves in an anomalous position when they disobey the. law, and the Mayor of. Wellington has. recently set an admirable example iu this respect, The United District- Board, which is as unpopular in Wellington as it is Masterton, lias made a demand on the Wellington City Council, which Mr Dutniedeemsto be-exorbitant.- By law the Council iabouncVto comply with it, and the Mayor liiroself moved that the money be paid/but in doing this he exposed the unworkable and extravagant character of our char'tableaid legislation, and perhaps did more to bring about a oliahge in the Aot than'has been accomplished by the rebellion of the Wairarapa local bodies,. ; It is satisfactory to find that leading publio nien-in Wellington, as well as leading public men in the Wairarapa, condemn oiiir new poor law. Experience in all parts of the colony under ■ its operation points directly., to.))je conclusion that, it' creates .pauperism, Wjier,g- the administrators of the measure have' given liberal reliefto the poor, it has found that this class in the community has ceased to help itself. If, say; a"poor : family be subsidised to the extent of a pound a week-still larger ajjppnces. have frequently heeiigranted :of:the : iolpnyr-that family at o'nce oeaies. to .labjor for- .a jsubsisten.ee. -.lf-the allowauce. isst ij.owii : tppnehalf, the family at once-bepi to ,earn money to replace the' amount with. drawn. If then the grant be reduced toa fourth, the family, after much tribulation, looks out for more work iuQ.d\eams more money, and if, finally, the allowance be swept away/ tlio-'fairly < to. \vork-: iu ; earnest anlear'ns the full amoun)pf ] thei originalgift, >MisfisM :fancy | pioiuvo, but a"conclusion drawn from] i

aotiial facts and actual experiences.' KnormouS slims have been wastod under our present poor law, and Mayor Diitliio is peifeotly right in pointing,out that Wellington haa been a chief sinner in tbis direction. The Wellington sponge held more moisture than the Aucklaud, Christchmch, or Dunedin sponges, and could therefore be squeezed to a greater extent. :in'';oue.part;'of' the colony .hospital and .charitable..aid expenditure., has' cost but littlei more than a shilling a head, but ill the Empire City it has cost eight 'shillings per head. There can - be no explaining away of a discrepancy so glaring as this. It simply means reckless and mischievous extravagance", Itwould be wiser to throw that portion of the consolidated fund whioh is applied to bolstering ;up suoh a monstrous system into the Wellington harbor. The Government really is the milch cow in this matter,'and its lavish grants hi aid create very much of the pauperism which. Sir Bobort Stout's poor law has brought upon New Zealand.