BRITISH BENEVOLENCE, BRITISH PLUCK, BRITISH LIBERALITY.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 165, 29 May 1873, Page 3

BRITISH BENEVOLENCE, BRITISH PLUCK , BRITISH LIBERALITY.

(By Mark Twuir)

INOLI3U QO^V JU.AE'II-UM i 3 Wl »re the offspring uf Kzi>.{l»n(l ; and -o it i-, pleasant to reflect thit the tei\ nr-J thing tint -Hton Oies a stranger vtf/en he arrives m thai oninfy is not U> j> usual features, ,»ot the va*tne*3 oi Ltvidon, not thu peeiunrit c-> oj «pee<'.i and dress of it* p<\>pL\ but the curious I i.-isluv^ wit I « hick that people pour iiiunin nuo the hp of any hi^'i nnd worthy object needing lulp. It is not done ostentatiously, but niodfsth. It couu's i'loui ni'bnly knows where, about hull' the tune, but it conies Every few clays you see a brief item like this m the paper . — " The (such and meh a charity) desire to acknowledge the receipt of £1000 from X.V Z. This is the fifth £1000 fiom the same source. XYZ don't give hi* name; he just gnes Ins 5000 dollars und says no more about it. Some hospital will put up a contribution box b% the door, and it will captuie hundreds and hundieds of pounds' Irom unknown passers by The porter of the Charing Cross hospital b.iw a gentleman stud something into the contribution box and pass on lie opened the box to see I what it was. it was a roll of bank bills amounting to 1250 dollars. One day un unknown lady entered the Middlesex Hospital aud asked Irate to go round |uid talk with the patients; it was found, after bhe h..d gone, that lad squandered 750 dollais there, But win go on '^ I got k> ■worked up about chanty nwtteis m London that I was near coming away from theie ignorant of every thn£ else. I could reel oil' instances of prodigal charity conferred by stealth m that city till picii tlu Tribune's broad columns would crj for quarter. " Gm\ Bab} " could not satirize the national disposition towards fiee-handed benevolence — it | could only satinzo instances of foolish and stupid methods in the application of the funds b\ some of the charitable organisations. liut in some cases the great bencTolent societies of England manage their affairs admirably. It makes one dizty to read the long list of enormous sums that individuals have given to the London hospitals. People die of want and starvation in that huge hive, just as they do m New York, merely because nine people out of ten who beg help are nnpoitors — the worthy and sensitive shrink from making an appeal. In either city a thousand hands j4nuld C bc stretched forth to save such if the need could be nown in time. I have forgotton many things I saw in London, but I remember jet what an outburst there was, and what a pang seemed to dart through the whole part of England when a poor obscure, and penniless American girl threw herself off Waterloo Bridge because she was hungry and homeless, and had no mend to turn to. Everybody talked; c^erybody said "Shame, shame'" all the newspapers were troubled ; one heard strong, honest regrets on every hand, and such expressions as " What a pity, poor, thing, she could have been smothered in money if a body could only have known her case." You would hare supposed an emperor had fallen, and not a mere nameless waif from a far country. The mourning for the late Napoleon is empty and lifeless compared to it. The girl could have collected a whole fortune if she could have como alive again_ THK UOYAL NATIONAL LIFE BOAT INSTITUTION. "We know what the Royal Humane Society is ; for it is always at work, and its fame is wide on the earth. Well, England is sown generously with such institutions — not Government pets, but supported entirely by the \oluntary contributions of the people. And they make no pow-wow ; one does not even see the names of their officers in print. Now there is the Royal National Life Boat Institution, for instance During the year 1859 it saved 28 vessels, its boats Bayed 1,072 human lives, it paid in cash reward for saving life 12,000 dollars gold. It keeps its own boats and boat stations ; has its men on guard n'ght and day under regular salaries, and pays them an extra reward for «.ery life saved Since it began its work it has saved a fraction under 19,000 In es ; it has conferred 90 gold medals, and 807 silver ones ; it has given away 155.000 dollars in cash rewards for swing life, and has expended 1,183,330 dollars on its life-boat stations and life-saving apparatus. And all that money waj obtained by voluntary subscriptions. WHAT HIE CUNARD CO. DID TOR OUR HHIOES. To return to the life-boat crew of the Bata\ m, the Cunard Steamship Company gave each of the six seamen £5 a piece, nnd promoted third officer Gillies and fourth officer Kyle to the rank and pay of first officers ; the Mid i (ink and pay to commence, not upon the day we found.the dismasted vessel, but upon the day our ship left Liverpool for America. Now how is that "for tho clean white thing," as they say m the mountains 9 I have italicised the word " fi'rat," for I ask you to understand that that is a perfectly dazzling promotion to achieve with just sixty minutes' work — it, would have taken those men ten or twelve years of slow hard work in the Company's service to accomplish that, as matters usualh go in that methodical old pm ,ite navy. Indeed, those practical hard-beaded unromantic Cunaids would not take Noah himself as first mate till they had worked himupthrou,'h all the lower grades and tried him tun years on such a m itter They make every officer serve an apprenticeship under their own eye? in their own ships before they adwinee or t.-ust him. Captain Mooland had been at sea sixteen years, and was in command of a big 1600-ton ship; but they oij/ made him a fourth officer, and he had to work up temous'y toe m his captaincy, lie has been with them eighteen yeais now. | Officers Gillies and Kyle had suddenly jumped over a whole regiment of officers' head, and landed within one step of the captaincy, and all in good time they will be promoted to that step too. They hold the rank and receive the pay of first officers now, and will continue to do bo, though there are no vacancies at present. But they will fill the fxX vacancies that occur.