CHARITABLE AID.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2501, 21 July 1888, Page 2

CHARITABLE AID.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —New Zealanders are being brought face to face-with taxation for charitable aid purposes, and the limited insight they have already gaiued into the working of the Act, gives them a heart-sicken-ing feeling for the future of the indigent poor, and for the stimulating effects it will have upon the vagabond classes aiul i tramps of society. Here in Waikato I believe we are in one of the best districts for being impressed favourably with the Act. And yet lam sure that I state the ' feeling of every member of the Waikato Charitable Aid Board, when I venture 1 opinion that unless some other way is ! found for doing our duty to the unfortu- ; nate members of society, other than the ) present Act provides, their future will bo gloomy. To commence with ; the term Charitable Aid Board ■ is a fallacy, or a misnomer— 1 without reflecting upon the want 1 of ' charity of any member of the Waikato f Board. We claim to be as charitably inclined towards the deservr ing poor as any one, yet we cannot get t away from the fact that the Board meets t in name only as a Charitable Aid Board, i- but in fact as stern judges to try by every measure to resist any sentimental £ feelings of charity from overcoming the J grave duty they owe to the unfortunate s ratepayer in guarding his rates as far as ' possible from their friends in need. lam certain that money or relief grudgingly o given or repugnantly received, is not s charity. And therefore the Charitable j 0 Aid Act is a curse and not a blessing to j n the poor. It is a curse and not a bless- | ing to the colony, and must be put aside i- for some other method very soon, ere it J takes deep root in our colony, f To condemn the present system is one ■' thing to propose a remedy is quite adiffe--1 rent thing, yet. a remedy must be found, d and I believe has been found by Mr e Herbert. V. Mill, as proposed in his book, ie devoted to " Poverty and the State." His 3- proposal is to establish co-operative h estates, and his proposal is the best, in 10 my humble opinion, that has yet been suggested for dealing with the poverty of a State. Mr Mill's book has been handed f to me for perusal, and it has convinced 'J me that nothing in the present system rB can be recommended to the present ie state, but that there is a simple and [r practical way out of the difficulties, as >e recommended by Mr Mill, and his policy a- would be a boon to New Zealand.—l am, yours faithfully, William A. Geaham. ft " The Lodge," Hamilton. [Mr Graham has placed Mill's book at our disposal, and we will review the author's proposals in our next issue. Ed ii. W.T.]