Unemployed and Charitable Aid.

These important subjects have almost been entirely overlooked by Mr. Seddon's government, and no systematic attempt has been made to deal with either of them. The expenditure of £106,536 of public moneys on Charitable Aid during the last financial year, being an increase of over 20 per cent, on the previous year, is enough to show that the recent Liberal legislation has done little for those lowest in the social scale, and that their misery is growing faster than the boasted prosperity of others. An entire remodelling of our Charitable Aid system, including the institution of Labour Settlements where work may be found for the deserving unemployed, and forced upon the undeserving, and the abolition of our pauperising system of outdoor relief, is a more urgent necessity than the levelling-down proposals which find more favour at present.