CHARITY REFORM
MR JUDKINS ANSWERS CRITICS
Objections raised to the scheme of charity reform recently promulgated by him were answered by Mr WH Judkins at Wesley Church yesterday afternoon.
Mr Judkins urged that at present there was too
much overlapping in
the administration of Charity in Victoria. The work should be
done in a business
like way. The scheme proposed was not his, but was the
concentrated wisdom of a
number of minds, including those of Rev AR Edgar and Dr Strong. Some
people objected on
the ground that it was interfering with the liberty of the subject, to
the suggestion that
when a man was shown to be wasting his money it should be impounded.
There was no
reason why commissioners should not be appointed and given the
judicial power of
impounding a man’s money if necessary. He thought it was the
“Argus”
that suggested that the ordinary process of law was sufficient in the
case of a woman left
destitute by her husband, but a woman would go right to the edge of the
precipice before
suing her husband, for she would think that to do so would only make
matters worse.
The commissioners would take early action in such a case. The objection
was also made that
a man ought to be able to do as he liked with his own. The day had gone
past when a man
could do what he liked with his own. The trouble was that when a woman
went to a justice
she did not receive all that she deserved. There was a thing
called “The
Liberty League” - liberty to do anything one liked and to carry on as
one
pleased. (Laughter) A man was freer in Australia than
anywhere else in the
world , because he could not do as he liked. (Applause) Some
people said that
sufficient helpers could not be got to carry out the scheme but there
should be no
difficulty in securing 500 to 1000 helpers. There should be a charity
tax, and it would
not cost very much if the money was not wasted to such an extent as at
present. He
asked people, if they could not suggest a better scheme, to hold
their tongues, and
to help the scheme proposed.
From: THE ARGUS Monday 7th February 1910
