THE DESTITUTE WOMAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4149, 29 June 1892, Page 3

THE DESTITUTE WOMAN.

A Disclaimer.

[Fhou the Timaru Herald.] A Maaterton telegram, whioh we published on Wednesday morning, made reference to a case which at the first blush seemed to reSeot very unfavourably on the action of tho youth Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. It was stated that a woman, whose husband was recently killed at Pleasant' Point, and whose' house and effects had been washed: away by : floode, she thereby being left penniless, was Bent away'from South Canterbury to the Wellington district by the Board,, who paid her.pa'ssVge money, and gave her a solitary 'halfcrown " with which to maintain herself." She, not being able to findher friends in Wellington, walked to Mastertorij BolliDg bor boots on the jputney. to enable her to buy food, It was further stated that she reaohed her destination inastarving condition, and applied to the Wairarapa Benevolent Society for relief. That body commented' strongly on the action of the South Canterbury Board, who appear to have bean lipid responsible for the gift of .the solitary balf-orown, for the selling nl \ the woman's boots, and for/her starv-j ing condition when she reached Mastenon, With- this sensational story j staring ub in the face,, wfi thought, it! advisable to seek for soma explana-j

tioa from the Chairman of the Soatti j, Canterbury Board. Be gavn it in s very few words, whicb entirely altered the aßpeot of affairs as the " responsibility of the Bnnrd. The 1* woman was not "sent away," in the '• scnso implied by the telegram. She ! i told aolfrgymnn that she had friends '• to whom she could go in Wellington f if her passage were paid. He represented the case to the Board, and i they paid the money as requested, > No other relief was asked for. We • oannot see that the Board were to f blame. It was. not their fault that • the friends were not in Wellington; and what happened subsequently might hnvo been avoided if the woman > bud applied for relief in ihat city, i Before indulging in strong.comments 1 on the case, the Wairarapa Benevo- ! lent Society should have *nkod for information from the South Canterbury Board. —■«