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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 49

Report of Proceedings at the Annual Meeting

page 11

Report of Proceedings at the Annual Meeting,

The annual meeting of subscribers to the Benevolent Institution was held in Farley's Hall on 6th March, at 4 o'clock. The president (R. B. Martin, Esq.,) occupied the chair, and there were also present—Ven. Archdeacon Edwards, Rev. Dr. Stuart, Rev. W. Ronaldson, Rev. A. R. Kerkham, Rev J. Niven, Captain Thomson, Messrs M. W. Green, M.H.R., A. H. Ross, G. R. West, Alexander Rennie, E. E. C. Quick, James Brown, W. G. Geddes, William Wilson. Hugh Gourley, John Barron, John Scanlan Alexander Grant, James Mollison, W. S. Douglas, and Richard Quin (secretary.)

The Rev. Dr. Stuart : I rise to move the adoption of the report. I have read it over with a great deal of care, and have been struck with the amount of work—with the tale of work which it records. Somebody or some persons must have done a great deal of work in conducting the inquiries and agencies that are employed in assisting so many people. I still look upon this Institution as not only a necessary but also as a most beneficent institution. I cannot imagine how we could get on without some such establishment; and though the management even of a family can never be perfect, much less of an Institution that has to deal with so many broken-down families, and with so many people made wretched by poverty, and desertion, and misery—my astonishment is that the Committee have succeeded in giving such very general satisfaction. For myself, I voted and spoke strongly in favour of an inquiry into the management of the Institution, and made up my mind to give no rest to the Government or to the Committee until such an inquiry was instituted. I have now a page 12 very great deal of satisfaction in saying that the result of the inquiry has been to show that the management in all its departments was substantially sound, and I believe that the result of the inquiry of the Royal Commission has been endorsed by the whole of the community. It has been to myself a very gratifying fact this, for when the establishment required additional funds, and when a particular effort had to be put forth to secure them, the community responded most wonderfully. It was predicted that the fourth Carnival would be a failure, but the fourth Carnival—I am not pronouncing judgment on that mode of obtaining money, but I will only say that the community responded very handsomely to the application for additional funds, and I think the response must be regarded and ought to be taken as a complete endorsement of the management. Sir, there are some sad things brought under our notice in this report. One of those sad things is the number of families in a new community and in a new country that fall into impoverishment year by year. Reflecting upon this matter which the report brings under our notice, I asked myself, "Is there any means to prevent this going on ?" I think that the Committee and that gentlemen of education and of good position in the community should exert themselves to induce family men to join the benefit societies that exist in this community. As a minister of religion, I come a great deal across impoverished people. Now, I find that the working man who is an Oddfellow or a Forester—if he has got a broken limb, or if he has been laid aside by any serious illness—that for a time he receives at the rate of £1 per week. I have many men of that kind in my mind's eye just now, and in these cases they receive medical attendance too; and their families never become—on account of their illness—quite impoverished. They are able to keep their heads above water, and that is the result of the man's own forethought. I am sure that ministers of religion, and the people of Dunedin generally have not sufficiently recognised the advantages that result from being members of the benefit societies. I am quite sure that if nine-tenths of our people were members of these friendly societies, the work of our Benevolent Institution would not be half so onerous or anything like so troublesome as it is.—(Hear, hear.) The page 13 matter of wife desertion is one which the report directs especial attention to. I have asked "What is the cause of it—what is the cause of this wife desertion? What is at the bottom of it ?" I have come to this conclusion, sir—that too many families are crowded into Dunedin. I find, for example, that men who obtain their daily bread by working in the country, generally have their families in the city, and as winter comes on they come home, and during the the greater part of the winter they scarcely ever get a day's work; and when their little accumulations are exhausted they go on the tramp in search of work. They go to Timaru as Timaru people come down here, or they go to Christchurch as Christchurch people come down here. Wife-desertion is therefore more seeming than real. The husbands go away in search of work while there is no work for them in the towns. I wish that strong efforts were made to popularise our agricultural settlements. If a man makes a living for some time at harvesting or sheep-shearing, I should like to see him obtain and cultivate an area of about five acres, so that during the winter season, when it is impossible for him to get work in town, he might have work in improving his little farm. I am sure that special attention should be directed to a matter like that in the annual report of this Institution, and if the suggestion were adopted it would relieve the Institution immensely. It would put these men into a position of never needing help. They would have a permanent home on say from three to five acres, which would continually improve in value. They could grow fodder for their own cow, they could keep pigs, and what with plenty of milk and meal no difficulty should be experienced in providing for the family. The expense of dress and food would be scarcely a tithe of what it is now. Unless there is a check put to this tendency of people coming into town and against settling in the country, I believe the result will be to check the growth of the community in virtue, as well as in substantial comfort. I believe that men in high places here are to blame for the popular opinion that it is useless for men to attempt to settle in the country districts, unless they can obtain hundreds of acres. In other communities a man with a family can manage to support them comfortably on one or two acres. There he obtains page 14 comfort all the year round, instead of working for nine months and being a pensioner on the Benevolent Institution for other three months. Personally, I feel grateful to the gentlemen who year by year so admirably manage this Institution. In some respects it might be more economically managed, but I would just ask those who may be of that opinion to come in and give it a trial, and see how difficult it is to deal with hungry men—how difficult it is to satisfy mothers who have half-a-dozen bairns at home poorly clad and poorly fed. They clamour for 7s 6d instead of our 5s, and you can scarcely help giving half-a-crown more to give their children something of the comfort that you would like your own children to have.—(Applause.)

Archdeacon Edwards: I have much pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report, and I cordially endorse every word that Dr Stuart said with reference to that Commission of Inquiry. Of course it must be a great source of satisfaction to the members of the Institution, and especially to the committee, to find that the committee came so triumphantly out of that ordeal. I wish to say one or two words on what Dr Stuart has said in reference to that one of the most prominent features of the report—the desertion of heads of families by the heads of those families. There is a good deal of truth in what has been said, but unfortunately it does not stop there. I believe I am correct in saying that two or three years ago there was a conference at Sydney or Melbourne in which this matter of wife desertion was brought forward by the Colonial Secretary, Mr Dick, and I believe the Home Government are the only authorities that can deal with this matter; it was brought before them, and nothing was done in the matter. It occurs to me that something might be done in connection with this important subject by the Colonial Institute. They seem to take all sorts of questions into consideration and urge them upon the Home Government, with very great success. For instance, there is Sir Francis Dillon Bell. He might be induced to bring this question before the Home Government, and urge them to take it up. It does not affect New Zealand only; it affects all the other colonies. Many of these men are constantly deserting their wives and families. I suggest that the new committee should take the question into con page 15 sideration, and see what can be done in that direction. I have very great pleasure in seconding the adoption of the report.—(Applause.)

Mr Quick (in reply to Dr. Stuart's suggestion that business men and the Committee should warmly recommend workmen to join the Oddfellow's and other friendly societies) said that the best actuaries in the world reported that the benefit societies in England were most extravagantly managed, and he therefore suggested that workmen should be advised to invest their earnings in the Savings Banks. With regard to wife-desertion, he thought that the committee should go to the Government and say, "Unless you try and put a stop to this wife-desertion, we will throw up the management of the Benevolent Institution; or if you do not improve the present state of the law on this subject, we must come to you for a larger sum towards the support of the Institution." The matter of wife desertion should be prominently brought before the Colonial Governments, and if they agreed on the subject, there would be no difficulty in getting an Act passed by the Imperial Parliament. Men who deserted their wives and families should be brought back to the colony.

The Rev. Dr. Stuart : Many of those husbands are not worth bringing back.—(Hear, hear.)

Mr G. R. West : some of the deserters would not work if they were brought back to the Colony.

Archdeacon Edwards : Put them in gaol and make them work.—(Hear, hear.)

The Rev. Dr. Stuart, replying to Mr Quick's remarks, said that he was not capable of giving a judgment concerning the opinions of the English actuaries, but in this colony the Oddfellows, the Foresters, the Sons of Temperance, the Rechabites, and the Druids had hitherto kept their engagements as benefit societies. They conferred great benefit upon their members, especially in times of sickness and death.

The Chairman said that in reference to Dr Stuart's remarks that certain men should disperse themselves over page 16 the country, he was sorry to say they were a very idle, loafing, useless class, and they had neither thrift, nor energy nor enterprise. It was useless to recommend those people to go and settle in the country. They came to the Institution only when they were absolutely ruined, and it was too late to give them advice. The cure really rested with the clergy, who should preach to those men and tell them what they ought to do.—(Hear, hear, and applause.)

Mr M. W. Greek, M.H.R., would like to make one remark with reference to cases of wife desertion, and he thought that members of the committee and all the governors of the Institution should exercise their influence and do something to minimise that evil. He thought it would be taken for granted that they never found an abstainer depending on the funds of the Institution, and they never found an abstainer becoming a burden in the Institution. He understood from the police that when deserted wives told what had brought about the desertion, it was pitiable enough to melt a heart of stone. The root of the evil was in the drinking customs of the day. Working men had so many facilities for squandering their money, and by the habit of drinking they lost all natural affection. He could give a most horrible case that occurred at Port Molyneux, but he need not mention it there; but it was plain that the habit of drinking embruted a man and destroyed all natural affection. When a man squandered his money there was nothing to prevent him from deserting his family. Now, he appealed to members of the committee to justify him in stating that eight-tenths of the cases of wife desertion were caused through drink. Was it not the duty of the subscribers to do all they could to set a good example to the working classes, and to curtail the opportunities for indulging in excess. He held that prevention was better than cure. He knew that it was not the popular phase, but it was the true phase of the subject, when he stated that they would get at the root of the evil by dispensing with the drinking customs of the day. That would be far better than going to the trouble to send the deserting husbands back to their families. If the people took away that which led the husbands to desert their wives and families there would be very little further trouble.

page 17

Mr Alexander Rennie endorsed the remarks of the previous speaker, and specially adverted to the cruelty of the husbands who descended so low as to desert their wives and families.

The motion was then put and carried unanimously.