More Houses—More Babies

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 4

More Houses—More Babies

Sir, —The other day I announced' the alarming statistics of abortion in New Zealand to my husband, and awaited his shocked exclamation. To iny surprise he answered, “Well, what do you expect in this country, with the cost of living and the housing problem? Look at our own case, for instance.” I looked, at our own case. A two-roomed flat. No room for a sewing-machine or baby’s cot. Baby sleeps on a mattress on the floor. I remembered the paper I had wasted pleading with prospective landlords who had advertised “adults only.” People say : “Why don't you apply for a State house?" We have had an application in for one of four towns now for two yearg. As my husband has not been able to go overseas, there are hundreds of returned servicemen to take first preference, and after the war there will be more. “Have you been to see them?” I bear. Yes, I went to see a Government official about rehabilitation. ("Rehabilitatiou” is a long word, and it sounds very fine.) He told me-that I was very fortunate to have a roof over my head, and luckier still that I did not have to carry water in a bucket from my backyard. I suppose I was lucky again to receive tbe truth, even if it lacked encouragement. That there are others far worse off 1 do not doubt, I can still hear the desperate note in the voice of the woman who rang me when I was vacating my flat for a fortnight. She has six children, and they, including her husband, are living in one room. And the answer to all this? A rise in the abortion figures? The building of a few blocks of flats? I suggest that a little more unselfish tiess would answer the problem. I could name dozens of women living alone in palatial houses. There is a clergyman’s wife in the same town as the woman with six children, who has a ten-roomed house with several empty rooms. The church people don’t like the idea of her “letting rooms.” It is hard for the person living in a comfortable home to realize the pressing need of some of those who are not. I think a wireless appeal might bring unexpected response, and failing that, State-control of accommodation similar to the system working in rural England. If the only answer to the housing problem is to be blocks of communal flats, probably with no grounds for children and let months in advance, then it is of poor avail for the Government or the Church to preach against abortion. A little practical Christianity might help more. The cynic says, “Give these people houses and they still w'on’t have children.” Let him give me the house! —I am. etc., ZACOHEUS. Hawke's Bay, June 2d.