The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1908. CHARITABLE AID.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2223, 20 June 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1908. CHARITABLE AID.

The Hospitals Bill which is to be introduced into Parliament during the coming session will, provide nu opportunity to make a much-needed overhaul of our entire system of administering Charitable Aid. Having substituted for the workhouse system of the Old Country one of outdoor relief, New Zealanders have, genoraly speaking, hold the opinion that everything was moving quite satisfactorily, particularly as the prosperity of the country has caused the Charitable Aid rale, to remain as a tolerably light burden upon, tho community. Tho investigation, however, that has recently been made into this matter by the InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, Dr. Valintine, indicates that there is grave need of urgent action unless wo are prepared to perpetuate the pauperising influences that have proved such a curse in oldor countries. Speaking at tho recent Hospitals Conference in Wellington ill© Minister in charge, the Hon. Geo. Fowlds, said that in 1884 of 31 hopitals, 14 wore maintained entirely by tho ’Government .the remainder getting subsidies ranging from £1 to £3 for every pound collected. The sums derived from voluntary contributions then amounted to about one-ninth of the cost of the upkeep of tho hospitals of tho Dominion; now they had fallen to onethirteenth. He compared the expenditure for these purposes in 1884 with the expenditure last year:—

. 1884 V 1906-7 - £ £ Hospitals ... 67,826 185,942 •Charitable aid... 34,649 102,866 Total ...£102,175 £288.808 Tho population in 1881 was 552,590; now it was 968,797, so that while tho population had not doubled, yet tho expenditure had nearly trebled. Though tho expenditure had gone up out of all proportion to the increase in population, he would admit that the advancement of medical and surgical science and the exigencies of nursing had greatly increased the cost of hospital administration, .nevertheless this great increase in the cost gave need for serious reflection. Speaking of Charitable Aid, the Minister said the cost seemed to have gone up without the bounds of reasou, despite the wave of prosperity which the Dominion had experienced during the last twelve years. There was something wrong .somewhere, and he sincerely trusted that one result of the deliberations would be a reduction in the cost of charitable aid, especially that of outdoor relief, which could not but have a bad effect upon tho people of the Dominion at largo. Ob this aspect, Dr, Valintine also

spoke strongly, and urged that: iho Government subsidy should Ijo roducod. lie said that outside reliof was being lavishly administered, j sometimes without inquiry at all. An 7 admirable! report by Miss Kirk, of tho Wellington Bonovolent Trustees, on tho way in which outdoor relief was given around AVellingtou showed that some of tho recipients were able to buy igold-rimniod spectacles and bicj'dcs; and wh it was worse, this was at tho oxponso of poorer ratepayers, who wero struggling to pay tho rates. Some stop must be put to tho administration of outsido relief, and with that end in viow tlm subsidy for that particular branch should certainly bo withdrawn, so that the, expenditure would bo as much as possible out of tho rates direct. Tho State had to see that no 0110 starved, but thoro was no need for gold-rimmed spectacles and chocolates. The fact that outdoor relief is frequently administered .almost without any semblance of discretion is well known, yet it must he ndmitted that the task of discrimination is an exceedingly difficult one. The unfortunate part of the whole business is that in tho most legitimate and deserving cases sufferers from poverty, from reasons of prklo, refuse to avail themselves of State aid, particularly when it is administered in the callous manner that is characteristic of some of tho Charitable Aid Boards’ officials. On tho other hand tho professional pauper—to use tho term which wo had hoped would long be foreign to Now Zealand—will plead most plausibly and porsistonly and will accept any amount of rebuffs in the endeavor to securo tho moans of cxistoiico without working for it. This, too, we have known, but probably few of us have realised, that tho pauperising tondency has extended as far as Dr. A r alintino declares to bo tho case. Ho asserts that iro hive already in the Dominion • pa.upors of the third Now Zealand generation. Obviously this discloses a gravo position. It is not so much tho incroaso in tho chargo ■upon tho public funds—though that is 3orious enough—but the lamentable reproduction of vico which should novor ho permitted to gain a footing in 6Uch a country as Now Zealand. The problem is one to which our legislators should give their most earnest attention and, laying aside partisan interests, ondeavor to solve for tho future welfare of the Dominion.