HUMAN WASTAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1918, Page 6

HUMAN WASTAGE.

LIFE-AND LABOR IN THE SLUMS.

DREAD TOLL TAKEN BY POVERTY,

DIRT AND DISEASE.

"One half tlie world dose not know how tbe other half lives?' This is an old maxim, and its truth is apparent in Wellington to-day (says the Times). The influenza epidemic has brought home to citizens the fact that a community cannot afford to let the unholy trinity of poverty, disease and dirt run riot in their midst. Poverty, whatever its value may 1m as a disciplinary force amongst, the fit, is a social evil of the first magnitude—and one that any community that tolerates it pays dearly for. Poverty is the root cause of the slum. It is not the house or flic street that makes a slum, hut the people who live in it. So that the prohlem faced by the Empire City is not only how to abolish the slum, but how to remove the causes that go to the creation of a slum population.

A tour round some of flip slum areas of Wellington yesterday gave ,1 Times representative .an idea nf flip depth nf poverty in which the "submersed tenth" of Imp pity live. Tn some oases it has reached utter destitution- Tnfants have been found by the epidemic fighters lacking any clothing at .ill. Women stricken br tlie influenza were foflnd destitute nf nightolothes Women deprivpd of their brevhvippers are left to struggle along with cliildren. v.'itli no means nf nayinsr tbe rent, and in some oases with the prospect sooner or Inter of bavin;; another mouth to fped. One sueh 0.1=1.' is that of a woman 21 years of acre, occupying a, house belonging to an estato administered by the Public Trustee. Slip his two' children, and is expecting another. She owes five weeks rent, and is being ''dunned" for it. Pomp official or other having the official mind, called on her and suggested that she might be able to secure employment! Me.int.ime she is dependent, on public and private relief. But the rent has not been paid. What is to become of her? What chance have the children? Can the Dominion allow potential citizens to "row up during their most plastic years in conditions that do not make for a sound mind and a sound body These questions seem to dpmand an immediate answer, for it is certain that sheer, stark poverty is undermining ihe physique of many nf Wellington's wage-earners." Poverty means a low standard of health, a low standard of living, and a low moral. Knervated by disease, the submerged tenth lose hope, and as they see themselves getting deeper into the mire they grow hopeless. They let themselves drift down the stream. Many such are being helped by the nurses and helpers now engaged in curing and preventing the spread of the epidemic. As a- specimen may be mentioned the case of two single women living in a hovel at the top of a certain street. The house was occupied by a family consisting of the two' women and their father. The I latter has been sent to hospital. The place has an uninviting aspect from the street, and although it had been attended to by the sanitary workers, an evil smell hung around it. The paper on the walls had been taken off- There was next to no furniture. On two stretchers lay the two women- One of them, aged 2.1, looked more like 50. Her limb? were terribly emaciated, and her hands were so twisted up that they looked like claws. The women wero hoVrdpsn wrecks, weak m mind and body, pitiful derelicts drifting on tins «?ft of life. Suoh human wastage reprnfifrota a positive danger to the eowmimify, fhvlin.irv sanitary precautions Wn«M avail litlle in such a. case, tlieir snp'M freeflow is n m»>nnp? to the pnWio health. Pome kind of home is the *»>ly possible plarc for the™ till death "n«>*« , i?o«y releases them from their suffering The genera' epiflircn, «>f workers who have had som» *vTpeTi?«?* 5» «h>m work at 'Home is that tl>» Wlfieste* slum is equal to the worst theX Jiav* ss*™. The people welcome th» visit <n? Hike satwtarjr volunteers as a tulp. * fewpwimt greeting being, "Thank Gfl* yon Wxe eoHte." -