REPORT.

THE Greenwich Branch of the Charity Organisation Society present their Thirteenth Annual Report. The year is marked by the retirement of their valued Agent, Mr. King. He had long conducted the inquiries with an ability and patience which has been recognised by a testimonial from the members of the Executive Committee and from others who valued his work. His health has completely broken down, and the Committee most reluctantly accepted his resignation after giving him leave of absence for a time in the hope that rest would restore him. Mr. Fitzgibbon has been appointed as his successor, and is authorised to collect and to receive subscriptions and donations.

The year which has just ended has been one on which they can look back with tolerable satisfaction. A meeting, held at Major-General Clark Kennedy's in the autumn of last year, was the means of creating fresh interest in the work of the Society. The addresses of Mrs. Malkin, Mr. C. S. Loch, and others, did much to correct mistaken notions, and to kindle some enthusiasm. The Committee have received the support of several new working members who attend regularly and do not confine their work to attendance at the Committee meetings. They are of opinion that the Charity Organisation Society should not be simply a relief Committee, and that the applicants should know that the members, whilst relying largely on the inquiries made through their Agent, take a personal interest in them. The ideal of a Committee would, in their view, be that of a body which should not only follow up the cases after the relief had stopped, but also act as a permanent influence to counteract the necessary official tone of the Agent or Committee. Charity, to be real, must have the human element about it; mere money-giving is not charity. The cases which misfortune brings under the notice of the Society should provide the sufferer with a friend, who may exercise a lasting influence. There are many persons who apply for help, in whose case thero has been no evidence of any attempt to provide against a rainy day. cases are sometimes relieved on the condition that the person shall join a club or put into a savings bank. Whilst the Committee is engaged on new cases these persons should not be allowed to drop out of sight. The Whitechapel Committee has, or at least had, a rota of visitors who engaged to look after the cases both before and after they had come under the notice of the Committee.

Such

The Committee are anxious to repeat the statement on which they have before remarked, that the Central Society was not originally a society for the distribution of relief. It was intended to examine all cases, and direct them to the sources of relief suited to their peculiar circumstances. The evil of overlapping charity is now universally acknowledged; it was, when the Charity Organisation Society came into existence, only beginning to be felt. The purpose of examination was to reveal the circumstances of the candidate, and the resources available, not from any motive of curiosity, but simply with a view to discover the channel by which effectual help might be given. This could only be done if the Society were trusted by the charitable public, who would act with them, and let them know what had already been done in each case. If the experience of Greenwich goes for anything, it shows that the public send to the Society as a rule (to which exceptions are happily becoming more numerous) only certain difficult cases, and are not willing to be advised as to the relief.

The Greenwich Committee, having these facts in view, have endeavoured to be as little as possible a mere relief Committee. When a case requires large funds they have endeavoured to raise them in the neighbourhood, but not to

contribute by direct grant, or loan without security, as a rule. In the minor cases they have kept strictly to the old lines of the Society, and directed the applicants to the channels already open to them. In some parishes, where relief is distributed through a Committee, it is none the less the practice not to help the case till it has passed through the Charity Organisation Society. The statement of the clergyman, visitor, or of the applicant is only accepted so far as to entitle the case to temporary relief; any permanent decision is withheld till the case has been submitted to the office. If this plan were more generally adopted, it would do away with the impression, largely existing amongst the rich as well as the poor, that the Charity Organisation Society was an ordinary relief committee, only somewhat harder in the rules it adopted.

If

The Committee wish again to refer to the question of loans, as a means of helping those who are for the moment embarrassed, or who require help to make a new start. They have established a separate loan fund, to which it is to be hoped that some who do not subscribe to the Society will give donations. The ordinary loan societies charge a percentage such as to put a weight round the neck of the borrower, who often succumbs to the exorbitant charges. Our Society only requires the loan to be paid without interest in weekly instalments. It is not at present prepared to enter like those societies into the regular loan business, but, were funds at disposal, it could do much good." It must, however, be remembered that the purposes for which loans are asked must be carefully considered. It is not always advisable to give a loan to set up a person in a shop, to provide a mangle, or stock a hawker's barrow. by so doing competition is increased, and those already in the same line of business are deprived of custom, the help to the individual becomes an injury to others. Further, the Committee find by experience that these applications are often made by those who have failed at regular work through indolence, and have no special gifts for business. These remarks, however, are made only by way of caution, and to prevent disappointment. The loan system is one which they use as largely as they can. It is especially valuable as bringing before the minds of those whom it benefits the possibility of sparing something out of limited wages. The practice of setting apart the small sum required in repayment by instalments (for no interest is charged) may thus engender habits of saving, which will not die out when the loan is repaid.

The clergy who find their richer friends in Greenwich and Blackheath ready to come forward on behalf of any case which they bring to their notice are anxious to bespeak for this Society a larger support. Not only is much time, which would otherwise be spent in long and troublesome investigation, set free for other pastoral work by entrusting the inquiry to the Agent of this Society, but they are thus freed from all suspicion of partialiaty and favouritism. The Committee of a Society such as this may surely ask that to their other labours may not be added the burden of anxiety in finding the necessary funds to carry on a work which thus relieves the clergy. A perusal of the tables and report of cases is earnestly asked for.

Among the more interesting cases of the past year the following examples may be given:

The first is that of a foreigner of superior education, who wrote from an address in Greenwich to a member of our Royal Family, by whom the matter was referred to us for investigation. In this letter he described himself as a teacher of music and languages, who had come to England in order to practise his profession. An injury to one of his fingers. however, had prevented him from playing the piano, and thus deprived him of employment for some months. He had since recovered the use of his finger and had obtained a good situation (some distance from London), but was unable to proceed there from want of the clothes pawned during his disablement, and his penniless condition. In these circumstances he appealed to H.R.H. to lend him £5 till next Christmas. At our office he stated that he had written the letter because he believed H.R.H. was more or less acquainted with his family, his father

having been a member of the local parliament, &c. He had supported himself by teaching in England since 1876. There were many circumstances in the case calculated to excite our suspicion, many much more plausible stories turning out, on examination, to be merely works of imagination. But in this case, we are pleased to say, investigation proved the truth of the applicant's statement. The schoolmasters to whom he referred us all wrote of him in the highest terms, and we found that his statement as to the situation awaiting him was entirely accurate. Consequently we were enabled to recommend him for the assistance asked for, and we trust he will prosper in his new home.

The following case, in some respects similar to that just related, has not turned out satisfactorily. The applicant, a widow, 45 years old, and of respectable and even prepossessing appearance, asked us for a loan to enable her to take a situation as matron-housekeeper at an asylum in the West of England. She had been employed in an institution in this neighbourhood, but had been discharged in consequence of her age, and required the loan to assist her in procuring a suitable outfit, and pay arrears of rent, &c. On inquiry we found her character to be good, and granted a loan; but the situation in the West of England has never been taken up, and only a very small fraction of the loan has been repaid. We hear that she is now seeking employment in Greenwich.

A third case is interesting from the satisfactory conclusion following circumstances that, at one time, caused us some anxiety. A young man, who had been employed at some large works in this neighbourhood, and discharged through slackness, applied for help to enable him to emigrate to New Zealand. An uncle in that country had paid his passage money, but having been out of work several weeks, the intending emigrant was in want of many necessary articles of clothing, and of money to enable him to join his ship at Plymouth. As there was nothing against his character, and we had assisted his sister to emigrate to the same locality some months before, we acceded to his request. But a few days before starting our experienced Agent saw in him a decided inclination to shirk the voyage, and it became evident that, if not carefully looked after, the money and clothes would be the means of allowing a temporary migration to some other part of London, rather than the accomplishment of the already paid-for voyage. No permament good whatever being in the least likely to result except from departure for New Zealand, our Agent was directed to keep the clothes at our office till the time for starting, and then to accompany the young man, procure his railway ticket, and see his luggage labelled for Plymouth. This was done, somewhat to the emigrant's dissatisfaction. We were, however, glad to find that even before leaving Plymouth better food than he had been used to for some time, and the society of others bound for the same place, had given him good spirits and manly resolution. We have also, since, his arrival in New Zealand, been very pleased to learn that he is doing well, feels much obliged to our Committee for their kindness, and hopes shortly to be able to repay us.

The following case illustrates the harm that may be done by lack of the caution that undoubtedly was the means of bringing that just related to a satisfactory termination. In May, an elderly man called at our office, hoping to get from us a trifle towards enabling him to purchase a bath chair. He produced a letter, in which a gentleman residing in the neighbourhood stated that, though he did not know much about the man-whom we will call D.-he believed him to be honest and straightforward, &c., and had therefore suggested the raising of a fund to enable D. to buy a bath chair. This letter was dated April 9th, 1884. D. produced a subscription list showing that he had collected about £12, mostly in sums of one shilling to half-a-crown. The price of a good chair would be, he thought, from £8 to £9. On our remarking that he had collected £12, he admitted the fact, but stated that the chair fund then only amounted to £3, his board and lodging during the collection having cost 108. per week. We replied that, the sum having been raised to buy the bath chair, should not have been used for other purposes; also, that as he had begun

the collection on April 9th he had spent £9 in board and lodging in five weeks. He then became indignant, said the sum had been spent in six months, not five weeks, and at length produced another letter, dated November 12, 1883, in which a benevolent lady also recommended him for help to purchase a bath chair, in terms similar to that of the letter of April 9, 1884. Both letters were evidently genuine documents. The subscription list shown us was a copy. There were few names in full, and no dates, donors of shillings and sixpences not usually taking the trouble to sign their names. And D. admitted that still smaller sums were not always put on the list at all. We regret to add that D. again made his appearance at our office on October 25, having been sent by a subscriber who found him begging on Blackheath, and who gave him one shilling to relieve his immediate necessity, and a letter to our Agent. On that occasion the bath chair project was unmentioned by D. He stated that his home was at Kingston-on-Thames, but could give no satisfactory reason for his presence at Greenwich, or for his movements generally. When asked what kind of assistance he required he remarked, A trifle to help me along'; and produced some pawn tickets for clothes that he desired to redeem. He would give no definite address, nor refer to any person who knew him. At last he left our office after indulging in a torrent of invective against our Society; threatening to give us a bad character to all the ladies he knew. Had the benevolent lady who gave him the letter of November 12, 1883, given him a limited time to collect the bath chair money, from a limited number of specified persons only (she herself supporting him during the period of collection), D. might now, being a man of agreeable appearance and (usually) of civil manner, be the popular and useful owner of a bath chair, instead of a useless vagrant.

The annual meeting will, by kind permission of the Astronomer Royal and Mrs. Christie, be held at the Royal Observatory, on Wednesday, December 10th, at 3 p.m. The chair will be taken by Admiral Luard, C.B. The following contributions to a separate Loan Fund are announced: