CHEERLESS LIFE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 95, 8 May 1937, Page 5

CHEERLESS LIFE

-Own Correspondent.)

Pepiioners ip Roopis Without Comfort WINTER FUEL PROBLEM

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. A lonely life spent in the fireless, ramshackle xooms of dilapidated houses is the lot of many of Auckland 's oldage pensioners. In cheerless surroundings, which in some cases arnount to squalor, the illness incidental to the declining years of life are borpe in rooms which are offen deyoidL of the comforts regarded as necessities in modern life. It is in the antiquated houses of the thickly populated areas of Freem&n's Bay and Newton that many pf the pensioners live. Yesterday .one octogernarian was seen during the rounds of a Dock Street missioner to clamber up the Jark, rickety stairs of ia drab tenelaeut hbuse before reaching his small partially-furnished ropm, a mere few feet gquafe. Pthers went to bare rjoms Withput even the comfort of a carpet or a proper bed. An aged Maori and his wife found the consoljation of a home in a small, unfurnished room, pungent with the smoke of a smouldering fire, In one corner a mattress and a few blankets were piled upon the floor; in the other lay the few utensils and supplies the ho'use possessed. Soclql workers regarded these as comxnon ponditions. gome, they said, were betterj many were worse. Although pensions have been raised to 22/6 a week, the payment of as much as 10/for a room leaves many men and women almost poverty-stricken after necessities are purchased and prphibits the use of firing, gas or electricity. Gutr tering candle ends are a cpmmon means of illumination. «'We dare npt complain," a pensionr er said in one house yesterday. '*If we are thxown out where are we to gb? We men have not the greatest complaint; uather do our sympathies lip with the single women and windows who need the comfort of a home. We can rough it; they cannot. They suffer real hardship and, on account of the xents that are demanded, they cannot afford to Pay cpmf'oratble rooms or suitable accommodation.' ' The prqposal Qf the City Council to ereet a blpck of flats fpr pensioners in Ponsonby has won the full approval of the men and women who are likely tp benefit nnder the scheme, but it was pointed put with some misgiving yesterday that it would offex accommodation for only 35 men and women where hundreds are in difficult eireumstanees. It was predicted that when the time camp to select the occupants pf the flats, the council would be deluged with applicatipns from 200 or 30QQ peole. Some concern is also felt at the suggestiqn that the rent pf the flats might be 13/and it'was affirmed that 10/- was the maximum a pensioner could hope to pay on account of the increased costs of living, unless he were to deny himself fuei, lighting and adequate food.