A TIMELY HINT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2862, 29 August 1916, Page 7

A TIMELY HINT

TO "WIVES 01? SOLDIERS,

■ One experience of tho Wellington War Relief Association is that owing to tho proximity of the campss to Wellington. there is a growing tendency for wives of soldiers who have entered camp to take up their abode in the city, which is responsible, to. some oxtent at least for the shortage of small house accommodation. This tor many reasons is to be deprecated. As far as tho .women themselves aro concerned,'such a cnange in their lives is considered to do inadvisable. The absence of the husband in camp or at tho front is sufficient alteration in a women's life, without the ■ many olianges entailed by taking up a now place of icsiaence. _ She has to pay a much higher rent in Wellington than she (lid before, and the inllux tends to still further harden rents generally. Such are the difficulties cncountercd in. getting accommodation that sho often has to be satisfied with anything she can get in the way ot shelter. Then, again, the prices ef most goods for'domestic "consumption aro higher here than in other jjlaces, and there is always tho temptation to spend more In unnecessary directions m _ large cities than in smaller towns or in tho country. Children, too, very often suffer from the change to more cramped surroundings, and doctors' and chemists' bills»naturally follow. .For these and other reasons which might be given, the association wish to gontly discourage soldiers from transferring their wives and families to Wellington whilst they are in oamp dr abroad. One. specific case in point was mentioned to a Dominion reporter yesterday, that of a soldier who brought his wife and fivo children to town to live on a Saturday on which troops were parading tho streets, and wanted the assistance of the association to find accommodation for them, a task of considerable difficulty, with every hotel and'boardinghouse filled with visitors; "