SOCIAL ADVANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 16

SOCIAL ADVANCE

VOLUNTARY ACTION. A REPORT ‘ON METHODS OF SOCIAL ADVANCE. By Lord Beveridge. Allen and Unwin. English price, 16/-. HINKERS who look about them at the widening area of State action are asking what can be done to preserve the vigour and abundance of voluntary effort. They are afraid that incentives for action are disappearing while governments make themselves in- | creasingly responsible for social services. |

With these thoughts in mind, Lord Beveridge set out so show what has been done by social reformers in Britain, and to examine possibilities for the diversion of private enterprise to fields that so far have been scarcely touched. The historical section of the book, confined mainly to the 19th Century, is full of interesting material. Lord Beveridge decribes the growth and functions of

friendly societies, trade unions, cooperative stores, collecting societies and other forms of mutual aid. He shows that many times the initiative was taken by a handful of men, often meeting to discuss their needs in the parlour of a village tavern. From mutual aid he passes to philanthropy, and after surveying the field he reaches the conclusion that "most of the pioneers, so far as anything is known of their opinions, were moved by a religious motive or came from a home where religion was a reality." What of the future? Lord Beveridge has no difficulty in showing that voluntary workers can find ample opportunity outside the social services controlled by the State. Much more can be done for the blind and the deaf, for handicapped children, for unmarried mothers, the chronic sick and the aged, Youth organisations are only at the beginning of their tasks. In an age when domestic service has ceased to be an occupation for women, the needs of overworked mothers require urgent attention. It has been found that Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, opened in Britain, have helped people ‘to find their way a little more easily through the complexities of mod- ern life. In every direction new needs are appearing. Lord Beveridge points out that there are three conditions for a continued advance in social referm: opportunity for independerice, the survival of the religious motive, and a surplus of money ayailable for experiment. If those conditions exist, voluntary action should move ahead of the State, as in the past, towards the improvement of society. This book is an inspiring

document, valuable in New Zealand as well as in Britain; and no social worker

can aftord to be without it,

M.H.

H.