Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/217

as people of far less means." "While many have subscribed, and do subscribe liberally, there is a large class of the community who contribute nothing towards the help of the destitute, the sick, the afflicted, and the widows and orphans." "It is to be regretted that a large proportion of the wealthy classes of the Provincial District do not subscribe, as reference to the subscription list will at once show." These are samples of the complaints made. This discreditable apathy on the part of men who ranked as successful colonists, and their unwillingness voluntarily to share the general burden, no doubt had something to do with the passing of the "Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, 1885," under which authority was given to counties, boroughs, and road boards, to levy rates for the support of such institutions. By that Act, while, as was predicted, it increased the number of applicants, the scope of the Benevolent Institution's operations was largely extended, and it now gives relief to the poor of eight counties, twenty-eight boroughs, and two road board districts, besides providing an hospital for incurables, a maternity hospital, and an Asylum for orphan and homeless children. In this connection a proposition, made at the twenty-second annual meeting of the Society by Mr. John Bathgate (now deceased), may be noted. Deploring the large increase in the number of applicants for relief, and consequent increased expenditure (as in the previous ten years), in the course of which the outlay, all expenses told, rose from £3,030 to £7,868), he moved:—"That a memorial be framed and forwarded to the Government by the Committee, on behalf of this meeting, strongly recommending that an Empowering Act be passed, under which Elective Boards for the administration of charitable aid may be formed and incorporated in districts of convenient size, as regards area and population; that funds be provided by requisition on the local governing bodies within the area, who may be authorised to meet the same from the ordinary rates, or from special assessments; that unpaid overseers and assistants be appointed by the Boards, by whom all investigations shall be made, and relief, where necessary, distributed, as has been successfully carried out in Elberfeld (in Germany), New York, and other cities which have adopted the plan." Speaking to the motion, Mr. Bathgate said that the result of the scheme, as