GUMFIELD HARDSHIPS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5017, 23 August 1926, Page 2

GUMFIELD HARDSHIPS.

THOSE STARVING CHILDREN.

“AN UNMITIGATED LIE.”

A slightly different complexion has' been placed on the pathetic stories of starving children in the northern funi; lands by a statement of the member for Bay of Islands (Mr A. Bell) made to the House of Representatives oh Friday.

Mt Bell explained that during the past two or three years the kauri-guni .market has collaps.e.d, and realising the position that would arise; in the north during the present winter, he had asked the Minister of! Public Works to start relief works. The. Minister had, therefore, authorised an expenditure of £1250 for the relief of the married families. That amount was spent, and the Minister had. now made available another £lOOO for the same purpose. In the meantime he had been approached by a member of Parliament, who informed him .that a Presbyterian minister at Kaitaia had intima’,ted to him that children oh the gumfields. were starving. Mr Be.ll immediately telegraphed to the school teachers ! n the far north, and they had emphatically contradicted .the story; The previous day a report repeating the starvig children story had appeared in “The Dominion,” and he had again- wired the school teachers on the subject. One reply was tha,t the story was utterly untrue, while an-; other characterised it as “an unmiti-, gated lie.” A further report he ha<| received was- to the effect that the re--lief works were going on satisfactorily. It had been understood that from, 30 to 35 families had to be dealt with, but 60 were found to be nearer the mark, and the men earned a fair amount of money. He considered it only right to make the statement, show that the Government had not been remiss in regard to its duty in dealing with the’ unemployed problem bn the gumflelds,.