Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1895. THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5183, 16 November 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1895. THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.

. lx order to cope with its ivork, tho Noith Wairnrapa Benevolent Society requires, we understand, an ; extra Imiidiud pounds over and above its estimated demand for the ciirioiit year, and it may be fairly said tliat, during the past winter, ithas been called upon to meet an exceptional number of claims, that it lias done its best to assist all deserving applicants, and that much distress will result, if it cannot command the additional revenue for which it isapplying. Our Charitable Aid system is a wrong one, and under it a pauper system is being built up, which will iii time become a serious charge to the Colony. We do not blame the administrators of tlio system for this evil, They accept a thankless and troublesome task, in tlio hope that they are doing some little good to their fellow men; but if they take a retrospect of their labours, we fear that it will not be a satisfactory one,' Persons whom they may have helped for years, are stilt as helpless, or perhaps more so, than when they first received a dole, The system does not help a lame deg over a style, but rather tends to leave him sticking on it and to depend upon extraneous aid as a right and a privilege, and to discontinue any personal exertion on his own part, to earn a living. Of one thing we are quito suro and that is the expediency of labouvtests in all but the most helpless and imbecile cases, liven a bed-ridden pensioner cau knit or net, or sew, and suitable work ought to be demanded from overy person who is relieved by a Benevolent Society. Poverty by itself, is not so much an evil, if it be unaccompanied by idleness. We have ourselves seen a pensioner of tho Society, idling his time, month after month, in a most demoralising mannor; a pensioner who could liavo earned a fow shillings for himself by somo light employment, but who was unlikely to do so as long as the i Society rnado a provision for him, The Society, however, does not take up tlio position of being a Board of Works, and wo have no right to blame. its administrators for not embarking on an undertaking which dees not, in their .opijiion, coino within tlio scope of their duties, We only argue tjiai tho system is ■

wrong, and that till it is altered in a j right direction, paupers will he, created and encouraged by philanthrophic, bat mistaken efforts,