The Annual Meeting of Subscribers to the Otago Benevolent Institution was held in the Offices, Farley's Buildings, on Thursday, 11th February, 1875. The President (Mr. A. C. Strode) occupied the chair.

In submitting their Twelfth Annual Report, the Committee regret to Sate that they have been called upon to relieve a more than usual amount of distress, especially during the last six months. This may to some extent be attributed to the large increase of population through Immigration, inasmuch as amongst those persons who have been sent, out here at the expense of the Colony, a considerable number may well be designated "trained paupers," while others are physically unfit tor labour. Of these latter, several heads of families have died, leaving their wives and children dependent upon the funds of the Institution.

The increased expenditure may be further explained by the large number of accidents which have occurred throughout the Province, in which cases wives and families have been left destitute;

2. By the payment of passages of persons who were a burden on the funds, and would otherwise have been unable to reach their friends, who would support them;

3. By the scarcity of houses as compared with the increased population in Dunedin and its neighbourhood, with the consequent increase in rents, creating such a difficulty in finding house accommodation, that the Committee were compelled to apply to the Provincial Government for the temporary use of the Old Police Barracks in Princes Street, in which six families, numbering 36 persons, are now located.

The sum expended in out-door relief during the year amounted to £956 18s. 7d., of which £267 10s. 6d was paid for rent. The number of persons thus relieved averaged weekly 74; the total number during the year being—adult (males), 203; adult (females), 878; and children, 2756.

In consequence of the increase in the number of male adults at the Institution, especially during the winter months, when it reached 29, the Committee were compelled to enlarge the quarters occupied by them at a cost of £150.

The great want of water at the Institution, especially during the summer, induced the Committee to take advantage of the Company's water, from which source the whole Institution is now efficiently supplied.

Among several improvements contemplated, it is proposed to provide a small detached Sanitarium, to meet any cases of contagious diseases that may occur, no proper provision having been previously made to meet such epidemics as have recently been prevalent in the Province. The Committee appeal to the Public to aid them as heretofore in carrying out any necessary alterations which may be required for the comfort of the inmates.

The average number of Inmates in the Institution during the past year was 78, at a weekly cost of 7s. 5d. per head.

The number of Inmates in the Institution on the 31st December, 1874, was : Male adults, 24; female adults, 4; boys, 26; girls, 22; and the number who have left during the year was : Male adults, 10; female, 3. One old man and one old woman were expelled for breaches of Regulations.

The number of admissions during the year was, male adults, 18; female adults, 3; boys, 1; girls, 8.

The Committee have placed at service during the year 3 boys and 4 girls, and have much pleasure in reporting as to their general good conduct in their various places of service.

On the resignation of Miss Coxhead as schoolmistress, Miss Wilson was appointed to the vacancy, and the Committee have much pleasure in testifying to the uniform attention paid by her to her duties, and the steady progress made by her pupils.

The Committee, deeming it advisable, both for the sake of economy and better management, to combine the duties of Secretary and Master, appointed Mr. Richard Quin to this office, while Mrs. Quin has taken the place of Matron. Under this arrangement the Institution has, in their opinion, benefited considerably, especially in the increased number of donations and subscriptions.

The attention paid by the religious instructor (Mr. M 'Fie), to the Protestant children and inmates has been, as heretofore, highly satisfactory.

The Medical Report attached hereto, shows the general health of the inmates during the year. The Committee cannot but testify to the successful results arising, notwithstanding prevailing epidemics, from the assiduous attention of Dr. Hocken.

The Committee desire to acknowledge the generous support accorded during the past year by their many subscribers to a charity which has thus been enabled to afford relief to an unusually large amount of distress and destitution, and would commend to the consideration of the public generally the example of those who contribute annually to the funds of the Institution, particularly as every deserving case of distress is relieved without regare to creed or nationality.

The Committee deem it necessary to caution the public against giving money to the several systematic beggars who are in the habit of imposing on the charitable, and request that applicants for relief be referred to the Secretary, Mr. Quin, who is authorised to relieve all urgent and deserving cases.

A. Chetham Strode.

The Balance Sheet having been read,

The Rev. Dr. Stuart said that, as one of the oldest friends of this valuable Institution, he considered it a great privilege to have an opportunity of moving the adoption of the report. He had listened to the introductory remarks of the Chairman, and in the main concurred with them—as to the causes which had led to such considerable demands upon this Institution. Doubtless, thriftless persons had in some way or another found their way to Otago, and those people had been a page 6 direct burden to the Institution. He had noticed also that the authorities at Home seemed to give very extraordinary encouragement to widows with young families to come out here. They came with the expectation of readily finding employment, and beleiving, too, that the employers would take their children. Of course, they were very soon disappointed, and the result was that they gravitated towards Dunedin, where they got very miserable accommodation, and eked out a livelihood by charing and washing, while their children were left to the teaching of the streets, finding their way first to the Benevolent Institution, and ultimately to the Industrial School. He also noticed that the report mentioned another cause of the burdens laid on the Institution—viz., the scarcity of houses. He was delighted the Committee had drawn attention to this matter. He did not think there was another cause of misery in Dunedin so active at the present moment as the high rents, and the extremely imperfect accommodation, or absolute want of any. He found that many people took houses at high rents, and they were obliged to take in lodgers, and the result was poor accommodation, family squabbles, and separations, and ultimately expense to the Benevolent Institution and other institutions of the community. He trusted the citizens would be induced by this paragraph in the report to band together for the purpose of providing accommodation for the working classes. It grieved him exceedingly, six or seven months ago, when an effort was made to float a society for building houses to be sold to working people, to find that that effort met with little or no support, and had to be abandoned. The Rev. Dr. Stuart concluded by paying a high compliment to the conductors of the Institution for the able manner in which they did their work, and for the benefits they conferred upon all classes of the community, without any distinction of creed or country.

Mr. Maitland seconded the adoption of the report, and in doing so, said he fully concurred with the remarks of the last speaker as to the benefits which flowed from the Institution. He had himself witnessed its good efforts, not only in the town, but also in the country districts.

The report and balance-sheet were unanimously adopted.

Election of Office-Bearers.

The following gentlemen were elected office-bearers for the ensuing year:—President, Mr. A. C. Strode; Vice-President page 7 and Treasurer, Mr. R. B. Martin; Committee: Messrs. Jas. Fulton, Rennie, Mollison, J. Hislup, Kennedy, Bagley, Black, and James Maitland.

Illegitimate Children.

The Rev. Dr. Stuart said the subscribers to the Benevolent Institution were glad to see present at their meeting a number of ladies who had always been friends to the Institution. He was sure the ladies had some motion or message to bring before them, and doubtless the meeting would be glad to hear what it was.

The Ven. Archdeacon Edwards stated that he had been asked to explain the business which had brought the ladies to the meeting. It was well known to all that there were a great many young girls here who became mothers without being married. It was a melancholy fact that a good many of the children of these unhappy girls were sent out to nurse and died if the payments from the mother ceased. This was an awful fact, and it was a question whether it was not a duty to meet that evil, and put a stop to such a painful state of things. What the ladies present wished to suggest was whether something ought not to be done to meet the difficulty at the Benevolent Asylum. So far as he understood, at the present moment there were two uninhabited rooms at the Institution which could be used for the purpose. He was quite aware that there were one or two objections which might be urged against the proposal. It might be said that the expense would be very great. That was perfectly true; but the Benevolent Institution was largely supported by the Government, and the evil could be much better met by means of the existing Institution than by establishing another. Again, it might be said that the taking of such a step would be an encouragement to vice. Of course, there was something in that, but if those wretched children were left to die, it seemed to him as if they were visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, which was surely not right. He hoped the Committee of the Institution would take this matter into their earnest consideration, and see whether something could not be done in connection with the Institution to meet the wishes of those ladies whose cause he was supporting.

The Chairman thought this was a very large question, and he might say on behalf of the Committee that they would page 8 take the whole matter into consideration. There were several points to be considered. First, they should look at the original objects of this Institution. It was never contemplated to take children into this Institution; but in 1862 the force of circumstances compelled them to turn it into an orphan asylum for the time being, hoping to gradually get rid of the children. He might tell the subscribers, as he had told them more than once in that room, that really the proper objects for the relief afforded by the Institution, were excluded from its walls by the children, who had no business there. The old men and women were put into an out building, because the children occupied the main building. That was a state of things that should not exist.

Mrs. Muir said that having been one of the first connected with the Institution, she might say that she was under the impression that it was formed principally for orphans. When the place was built, the rooms were laid out for that purpose. For several years there were no adult inmates. Hence the appointment of a teacher, nurses, and other officers of the Institution. Afterwards, adults were admitted. So far as she understood, the building was certainly erected for children.

The Chairman thought Mrs. Muir was labouring under a mistake. So far as this Institution was concerned, he might say that he was the first person who wrote about it in the newspapers in 1862. The subject was taken up by Mr. Vogel, then editor of the Daily Times, and the result was the formation of the Institution. It was never contemplated at that time, nor at any other time, that children should be admitted; but, as he had said, the force of circumstances had compelled them to do so. Their rules were a transcript of those of the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, which had never admitted a child within its walls. He might say, in connection with what Archdeacon Edwards had stated, that the Committee would take the whole matter into consideration, and would endeavour to meet, as far as they could, the wishes of the ladies. Probably it would be just as well if Mrs. Muir and the other ladies who interested themselves in the matter would lay some scheme before the Committee, because it would be desirable to have something definite before them. Perhaps it would be desirable for the Committee to know how the extra funds for the support page 9 of the children were to be raised, so that the Committee might know what they were about.

The Rev. Dr. Stuart hoped that when the scheme referred to by the Chairman was laid before the Committee, the ladies would take care to furnish some statistics. For example, he did not know the rate of illegitimacy in the Province. He knew that illegitimacy did exist in the Province, and he could testify to the truth of the remark made by Archdeacon Edwards that from one cause and another, very many illegitimate children died. But it was another question whether the present proposition was the best remedy for the misery that illegitimacy occasioned. He did not think it was. In his day he had looked into the history of such institutions, and what did he find? As far as his reading went, foundling institutions led to an increase of illegitimacy. They knew that in France, before the Revolution, when foundling institutions prevailed, it was a common thing for people after marriage to agree between themselves that the children of their marriage should be dropped into the Foundling Institution. Rousseau and his wife made such an agreement, and gloried in it. Six children born to them were put into such an institution. Such institutions tend to keep down family life in France, and in his judgment came to be one of the chief causes of the destructive Revolution. The misery that had excited the compassion of the ladies of Dunedin ought to be met and relieved. He thought the right way of relieving it was to send those children to individual families, and not to mass them together in the Benevolent Institution, because he thought it could be shown that there was great moral danger in the latter course. He thought the establishment of a Refuge such as was proposed, would cause a great increase of illegitimacy; and further, it would be absolutely impossible to get anything from the fathers for the support of the children. As for the mothers, they would change their situations, and it would cost more money to prosecute them than could be obtained from them for the support of the children. Of course, they were thankful to the ladies for looking abroad at the misery that existed, and for seeking to relieve it, but he ventured to differ from their judgment as to the best way of affording relief, and he for one was not prepared, as a subscriber, to support the establishment of a foundling department in connection with this Institution.

Mr. R. B. Martin thought it would be a pity to allow the ladies to go away without showing that the Committee had frequently cases before them of the kind now referred to. It was nothing unusual for the committee to be applied to for temporary relief by women either before entering, or after leaving, the hospital. They had always been ready and willing to give such temporary relief, but they had always set their faces against admitting the children into the Institution. They used to take the children and put them out to board, but in those cases the parents afterwards absconded.

The Rev. Dr. Stuart pointed out to the ladies that they might confer a great benefit by seeing that those young women, after their confinement, were allowed to remain a longer time in the Hospital than appeared to be usual.

One of the ladies explained that they had already taken several women into the Refuge from the Hospital.

The Chairman said it was considered undesirable in England to herd together large numbers of children. It was found in practice to be most mischievous. He would be a strong advocate for taking the children out of the Benevolent Institution, or even out of the Industrial School, and placing them in families of twos and threes.

Mrs. Muir explained that the ladies wanted to know what they were to do with the children, who were in their way at the Refuge. Everything done by the Institution was subsidised by a large amount, but it would be very hard to get anything in the way of a subsidy for a new institution Perhaps, this movement would be better supported in connection with an institution that was well known than if anything fresh was started.

The Ven. Archdeacon Edwards thanked the Committee for having promised to take this matter into consideration. He was very glad this discussion had taken place, and that some light had thus been thrown on the subject. The ladies would do what had been suggested in the way of furnishing the Committee with a statement of their views.

The meeting then terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.