HOME OR PRISON?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 814, 7 November 1929, Page 6

HOME OR PRISON?

CARE OF DESTITUTE AGED BILL SHARPLY CRITICISED THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Wed. Characterising it as a prison Bill, drawn up by a prison authority, Mr. E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) made a vigorous attack on the Rest Homes Bill during the second reading debate on the Bill in the House this evening. He even suggested that the Bill was not drawn up by the United Party, but was a legacy from the Reform Administration. He more than made it clear that he was not a supporter of it. “This is a Bill drawn up by a prison authority,” he declared. “The whole thing is prison. It is not a rest home at all.”

The Minister o£ Justice, the Hon. T. M. Wilford, raised a point as to whether inmates should be allowed to walk out when they liked. “Why shouldn't they?” Mr. Howard wanted to know. It was all very well for Sir. Wilford, a man of means, who owned a home. He could walk out when he wanted to. Why should not those whose only crime was poverty? Mr. Howard later suggested that the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, was not the . author of the Bill. It was a baby left over from the Reform Party. (Laughter.) He had been suspicious as to this when he heard Mr. R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs) praising it. The Bill was a gaol Bill. Every clause was a gaol clause written by a gaoler.

“Whichever side of the House it came from,” he said, “I don’t care. I don’t know the author of this baby, God bless him, but it’s not much anyhow.” (Laughter.) “The very words, ‘destitute persons,’ were an insult,” he continued, and he was glad the Minister had withdrawn them, but rest homes was not the term when the Bill was framed so that a magistrate could say, “You are sentenced to two years in a rest home.” What a nice name! The Bill was not what people were looking for, and Mr. Howard suggested that the Minister did not know where it had come from. He had just had it pushed into his hands. It was writing into New Zealand’s laws punishment for poverty. A magistrate could convict for one crime alone, poverty. A Member: He can do it now. Mr. Howard: No he can’t. He can convict under the Vagrancy Act, but that is very different. lie continued that the Bill, however, was a considerable extension of the Vagrancy Act. “Even if I am a voice crying in the wilderness,” Mr. Howard concluded, “I shall protest with all the strength at my command at writing poverty, into the laws of New Zealand.”

Mr. T. W. McDonald (Wairarapa) protested against Mr. Howard’s suggestion that the Bill had been made by the Reform Party. The Minister of Health was the sole author. Mr. McDonald agreed with Mr. Howard and hoped that the clause fixing the minimum period of confinement to homes for one year would be struck out.

Mr. Stall worthy, replying, said that the name of Sir Joseph Ward was associated with the Bill, and there need be no misunderstanding or misconception as to the author of the Bill.

Mr. Stallworthy was amazed at the utterances of Mr. Howard in his very vicious attack on the Bill. He was wondering if Mr. Howard had read the Bill. Mr. Howard: Yes.

Mr. Stallworthy said that under the Bill any person poverty-stricken could be helped in a way so that no charge could be heard against them. A magistrate could send persons to a home. Mr. Howard: He can convict them. Mr. Stallworthy was sorry that Mr. Howard had spoken in that manner. He advised Mr. Howard to read the Bill and acquaint himself with the provisions. He regretted the reference to gaols. The Bill was designed to prevent people drifting into gaols and asylums, and he and Sir Joseph Ward had been careful that no suggestion of prison be made. Regarding the charge that the Bill had been thrust upon him, it had been framed to help poor old men 1 * and poor old women who could not help themselves. The Bill was a genuine attempt to deal with a very difficult problem. Mr. Howard: It’s not the result of a divine call, is it? Mr. Stallworthy said the Bill was entirely a new measure, and the Government took the whole responsibility for it. The Bill was read a second time. The committee and third reading stages will be taken tomorrow.