CARE OF AGED POOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 681, 5 June 1929, Page 18

CARE OF AGED POOR

HOME IN HAURAKI GULF? SIR JOSEPH’S SUGGESTION A proposal that the State should take on to itself the responsibility of looking after those heavy in years but light in pocket through no fault of their own, was put forward at the Town Hall last evening by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward. For those who are before a magistrate on that indefinite charge of “vagrancy,” the Government proposes to establish a home -where the unfortunate and elderly poor may live out their declining years in pleasant surroundings and comfort. Sir Joseph Ward expressed the opinion that a home should be established —say in the Hauraki Gulf — to make pleasant the lives of those who had fallen by the -wayside of financial stress, and whose only alternative to sleeping in the streets now was to go to gaol at the order of 'he magistrate. (Applause.) “The Government proposes to make a beginning in this way,” the Prime Minister added, “and during the next session of Parliament we will submit legislation to give power to a magistrate to commit these people to a home situated at some suitable place, where they could be sent and looked after and given humane treatment.” Sir Joseph also suggested that the same principle might be adopted with those who in mental hospitate do not require the supervision that other mental patients need.