The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3887, 15 August 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1891.

From the report of the North Wwrarapa Benevolent Society published jestiarday it will be seen that a sum of over £BOO per annnm is being expended on Charitable Aid jc this town, Were this three hundred pounds spent in suoh a way that it would help the poor to help themselves we should say it waß well spent, but in practice it is frittered away in doles wbioh absolutely hinder the noor from helping themselves. We do not complain of the administration of the fund, because the committee entrusted w>th its distribution is simply the active agant of a false system of benevolence and cannot be expected to do much more than it is doing, viz., considering applications for aid and granting such allowances as may appear to be adequate. But to illustrate the evil of the existing system we will take the case of a poor woman, say an industrious, deserving woman, who has been on the hook's of the Society for years, and has receivad in all a hundred or perhaps a hundred and fifty pounds of public money. This woman is every whit as poor and as destitute to-day as she was four or five years ago when she first began to receive assistance. The hundred or the hundred and fifty pounds which has been spent upon her has not helped her to help herself. Had on the other band a third, or only a quarter of this sum been expended in setting her up in some little trade, occupation or handicraft she might by this time have been , earnjng a decent living for herself, and be entirely independent of a Beneyolent Society, h might, however, be objected that it would be unfair to spend twenty or thirty pounds in setting such a woman up to compete against other ratepayers in an occupation or industry, but even this objection might be met, for many little industries might be selected, which are not, at the present time, followed at all in this town. We do not behpye that any public money Bpeni on charity is well expended, unless it goes in the direction of helping people to help themselves. The regular or chronic cases on the books of the Benevolent Society ought to be converted into temporary cases, * '•'on met by giving such assistn«»«t»r „;n ««* Ma tbe recipients to ance as will en&t.. nn ,{, nh anEe provide for themselves. iu.. '. is not one that can be brought about without considerable trouble, but we would like to see t'ie local bodies which provide the funds exert them--1 Belves to bring it about. The ratepayers have a big bill for charity brought against them annually, and it would be an act of justice to them if the money they are compelled to pay was used in such a way that it Would remove poverty ».-om the district, instead of stimulating and perpetuating it.