the fund even more useful for the purposes
originally contemplated. These purposes were
(1) to give a little financial assistance to
workmen incapacitated by age, sickness or
accident, and (2) to give financial relief to
their widows and orphans. The fund had been
started with some $36,000 privately subscribed
It had now grown to $200,000 by
by Chinese.
continual gifts, comprising apparently a
collection of quite small sums. The income had
come to be distributed almost entirely in the
form of annuities to poor widows. There was
now scarcely any case, he understood, of any
grants to aged or injured workmen, which was,
according to him, not only one of the purposes,
but really the principal purpose of the fund.
He thought that it might be possible to suggest
that the Government might take a more practical
interest in the fund, with a view to its
development by private subscriptions, and
possibly even by a small annual grant from
public funds, and that the absence of any
applications from workmen themselves for
assistance might be due to the fact that no
workmen knew, or could know, of its existence.
Possibly this could be cured by including one
or more representative workmen and employers
on the Administrative Committee of the fund,
and possibly also the scope of the fund might
be extended within its proper sphere if
Magistrates could be informed of its existence,
so that if a hard case came to light in the
Courts, recommendations for assistance could
be