Carnival, held in the Garrison Hall in 1880, the Institution secured £4,594, including subsidy. Two years later another Carnival, held in Mr. Donald Reid's Wool and Grain Store, resulted in the addition of £1,826 to the Institution's funds; and in 1884, the twenty-second year of the Institution, a Committee-in-Aid, directed by Mr. Vincent Pyke, carried to a successful issue a scheme, comprising concerts, lectures, dramatic entertainments, gift auction, &c. By that effort the Institution gained £1,661.
Though the letter of "An Old Otago Colonist" was fruitful in leading to the formation of the Institution, the suggestion thrown out by the writer to "rich merchants and successful diggers," who might desire "to make an offering for charitable purposes," has, as yet, been almost resultless. The only offering on a large scale was the anonymous but generous gift of £300 in the year 1881 from a citizen of Dunedin for the support of orphan children. Three years previously, however, the Institution received the large sum of £7,515 for investment, being a portion of the accumulated profits on deposits in the Dunedin Savings Bank. For this handsome donation the Committee were indebted to the Trustees of the Bank, and to the Honourables W. H. Reynolds and Mr. (now Sir) Robert Stout, who carried the measure through Parliament. That the gentlemen in whose hands in the course of the years the affairs of the Institution were placed have wisely fulfilled their trust is evidenced by the fact that, after affording relief to many thousands of persons, and a home to many hundreds, the value of the Institution's endowments, as at March 31st, 1889, was £20,515, These comprise the Caversham property (on which stands the Asylum, Old Men's Home, &c.), the Pine Hill and Saddle Hill properties, and investments to the amount of £11,910.
While a goodly number of the colonists gave fair support to the Institution as the years went by—some, indeed, more liberally than could justly be expected of them—many well-to-do settlers persistently manifested a disposition to ignore its claims. On this point severe reflections were repeatedly made in the annual reports. Such sentences as the following have a painful sound:—"There are some very wealthy people in this Province, in town and country, who have vast quantities of land, who do not contribute towards the funds of the Institution to the same extent
