Public benevolence is spasmodic, and usually follows an erratic course. The

response to an appeal for assistance

depends very often more upon the manner in which it is stated ar.d pressed upon public notice than upon the deserving nature of the object, and while it often happens that even a deserving cause well stated fails to

elicit adequate response, at other times public sympathy is so deeply stirred that the contributions are in excess of the exigencies of the case,

We have examples illustrating these premises in the outpouring of popular generosity on the occasion of the Kai tangata colliery accident, and the meagre response that has so far been made to the appeal on behalf of the sufferers by the colliery accident at ,F"in*'y. It is true that the magni tude ot the Kaitangata catastrophe appealed in an especial degree to the feelings of human pity, but the widows and children of those who were killed in that accident were no more deserving of sympathy and aid than those of the men who lost their lives nearer our own doors, and the unfortunate man who was disabled while bravely endeavouring, at the peril of his own life, to rescue his four en tombed comrades.
