THE SEAMY SIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 64, 2 August 1912, Page 4

THE SEAMY SIDE.

The disclosures that have been made recently in other centres with regard to the ill-treatment of women and children should really make the community pause I ; and consider. We do not, for one.mo-'.J nient,. think that these cases are cases 1 of conscious cruelty, but' unconscious I cruelty is often quite as lamentable.and 1 quite as pitiable as the more "refined'' j forms of deliberate neglect of the little J ones. We are used to accepting such j conditions as part and parcel of the seamy side of life hi the older world and to boast that they are impossible under our southern skies, where a more or less socialistic domestic legislation takes a wider cognisance of the well-being of the women and children. To a great extent tliis is true, but poverty, like everything else, cannot be eliminated by Act of Parliament. The danger is that with 'a growing population and the consequent congestion of population in our cities, that we may yet find ourselves faced, with the same sociological problem . that lias vexed older countries for many ( years'. We have no very elaborate sys- ; tern of relief for'the poor in New Zca- I land, simply because we have grown to j believe that poverty is practically non- '> existpnt in our-midst. Poverty and cruelty and crime live'hand in hand, and it is notorious that in a country like our own poverty prefers to "suffer and be strong" rather tlian parade its draggled skirts in public. But it is horrible to believe that under the healthy conditions of life that prevail in the Dominion there should be, under the surface, even a few women and children who are suffering from neglect and the irresponsibility of degeneracy. Still such cases have been'so frequently in the public eye of late that we are forced to the conclusion that our bright and sunny existence has,4 ragged edge that is strongly suggestive of the seamy side. It is reasonable to assume, too, that for every case that is made public there must be a dozen which never see the light of day, but remain pathetic instances of that suffering whose strength is silence. It is not possible to deal directly with these cases by a legislative rule of thumb, for the proposition still holds that every Englishman's home is his castle, and poverty and suffering are generally so intensely proud that they prefer to hide their heads in quietness and secrecy rather than to plant their disabilities before ' the Bumbledom of State assistance. There is, however, in our midst an association which is capable of doing an immense amount of useful work in the alleviation of suffering, if only it secures sufficient public support. We refer' to the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, the annual meeting of which will be held on Monday next. In the larger centres the branches of this altruistic organisation are widely supported, but we are afraid that in the lesser towns the importance of the work to be done is not so fully recognised. In a quiet and unobtrusive manner the ladies and gentlemen who are voluntarily giving their services in : attending to their less fortunate fellows are doing a work that ought at least to 1 command the financial support of those : who cannot spare the time to lend as--1 sistance in other directions. We cannot , afford to have the reproach remain ; against us that in a land which we are ; proud to call "ooil's own country," even i the least of the little ones are allowed to . exist under circumstances which must I make them wonder in childish incredulity whether pain and darkness and neglect are . "all the life God fashions and reveals." There should be jio necessity to appeal ! further for support for this most exf cellenl organisation.