PLIGHT OF IMMIGRANTS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3517, 2 July 1920, Page 5

PLIGHT OF IMMIGRANTS.

ARRIVING WITHOUT MONEY. NECESSITY FOR RELIEF. CHRISTCHURCH, July 1. It is stated tat out of some 400 assisted immigrants who have arrived during the past few weeks and who are the forerunners of at least 13,000 who are due within the next 18 months, quite a number have arrived in indigent circumstances and have had to be given monetary and other assistance. The Mayor’s'Coal and Blanket Fund Committee, for instance, dealt with one case this morning where a man, his wife, five children arrived in Christchurch with little else but their clothing. The children were compelled to sleep on a floor without bedding. The committee handed out three pairs of double blankets and a quantity of coal. Another case in Christchurch concerns a man, his wife, and five children. Their money, it. is understood, was exhausted while they awaited the departing of the vessel from England. Both the man and his wife have secured work several miles from where they have obtained lodging, but they are unable at present to pay tram fares and have to trudge each day to and from the place of their employment. An outstanding feature of the whole business is that some of the immigrants are of unsuitable types. Many are sufferers from war disalibities and are in receipt of Imperial pensons, but their pensions are. on a much lower scale than that obtaining in New Zealand, and as they are able to do only light work they cannot make sufficient money to establish a home. Naturally the various patriotic societies in the Dominion are concerned regarding the position. In most cases their funds were collected for quite a different purpose from that of assisting men and their dependents who were not resident in New Zealand at the time of the outbreak of war. It is quite patent also that if these oases increase their funds could not possibly stand the strain. Even more serious than the fact that charitable organisations are being called upon to give temporary assistance is that a proportion of the ex-imperial soldiers are in such a physical condition that they are likely ultimately to become more or less a permanent burden upon the State.