nd Valuable Work.

The annual meeting of the above Society was held yesterday at the
Town Hall. The Mayor, Alderman Sweater, presided, and amongst
those present were Sir Graball D'Encloseland, Lady D'Encloseland,
Lady Slumrent. Rev. Mr Bosher, Mr Cheeseman, Mrs Bilder, Mrs
Grosare, Mrs Daree, Mrs Butcher, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Baker, Mrs
Starvem, Mrs Slodging, Mrs M. B. Sile, Mrs Knobrane, Mrs M. T.
Head, Mr Rushton, Mr Didlum, Mr Grinder and (here followed about a
quarter of a column of names of other charitable persons, all
subscribers to the Society).

The Secretary read the annual report which contained the following
amongst other interesting items:

During the year, 1,972 applications for assistance have been
received, and of this number 1,302 have been assisted as follows:
Bread or grocery orders, 273. Coal or coke orders, 57.
Nourishment 579. (Applause.) Pairs of boots granted, 29.
Clothing, 105. Crutch granted to poor man, 1. Nurses provided,
2. Hospital tickets, 26. Sent to Consumption Sanatorium, 1.
Twenty-nine persons, whose cases being chronic, were referred to
the Poor Law Guardians. Work found for 19 persons. (Cheers.)
Pedlar's licences, 4. Dispensary tickets, 24. Bedding redeemed,
1. Loans granted to people to enable them to pay their rent, 8.
(Loud cheers.) Dental tickets, 2. Railway fares for men who were
going away from the town to employment elsewhere, 12. (Great
cheering.) Loans granted, 5. Advertisements for employment, 4--
and so on.

There was about another quarter of a column of these details, the
reading of which was punctuated with applause and concluded with:
'Leaving 670 cases which for various reasons the Society was unable to
assist'. The report then went on to explain that the work of inquiring
into the genuineness of the applications entailed a lot of labour on
the part of the Secretary, some cases taking several days. No fewer
than 649 letters had been sent out from the office, and 97 postcards.
(Applause.) Very few cash gifts were granted, as it was most necessary
to guard against the Charity being abused. (Hear, hear.)

Then followed a most remarkable paragraph headed 'The Balance Sheet',
which--as it was put--'included the following'. 'The following' was a
jumbled list of items of expenditure, subscriptions, donations,
legacies, and collections, winding up with