WITHOUT A HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1921, Page 3

WITHOUT A HOME.

CHILDREN “NOT WANTED” THE PLIGHT OF PARENTS. “What am I to do with my children? I have walked the soles off my boots looking for rooms, and no one will give us shelter. There seems only one thing to do —I must throw them into the harbor.” This wail of desperation was not the outburst of a wronged heroine of melodrama, but of an Auckland mother who for weeks had been living precariously with her family in rooms, and who finally sought sanctuary (for her little ones in the Grey Street Mission H>>use creche (says the Herald). “We have cases of this kind every day,” said the sister in charge of the creche. “We never care to take in children save where it is quite impossible for the mother to look after them; but in cases such ws this it is impossible to refuse. If the authorities could see some of the utterly dispirited nyithers, the worried fathers, who come to us and say they cannot find a home for their little ones, 1 think it would move some of them to action.” Any one of Auckland’s army of househunters will agree that the day of the good old Scriptural benediction, “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them,” certainly seems to have passed in this year of grace 1921, for nothing, apparently, could prove a more unhappy handicap in the acquisition of a home than even one, let alone a quiver full, of t them! A SPOILT HOLIDAY. Of many instances cited, one is particularly worthy of mention—that of father, mother and. three little ones who came, to New Zealand from the islands with th© intention of spending a six months’ holiday here. They anticipated little difficulty in renting a house or a flat, but a very short stay in Auckland dissipated this illusion. For a while they boarded at an hotel, but this proved unsuitable, as wgll as jery ««•

pensive. After* a weary search they secured rooms, but had only occupied them a day or two before, the other occupants of the house complained tjiat the baby cried, and they were invited to find accommodation elsewhere. 'The next venture proved no more successful. The bare mention of three children practic- ? ally meant a slammed door, although 3 one motherly soul said regretfully that j she would not mind taking the little , ones in the least, only she knew quite j well that if she did her other boarders would leave. □ The strain and worry of hjL.se-hunt- ’ ing is rapidly diminishing the enthusiasm of these visitors for Auckland, as , well as proving most trying to their finances, and although the Grey Street > , creche is now looking after the baby j while the parents go home-hunting, they will return to the Islands with an unr flattering opinion of New Zealand as a , holiday resort for family parties. J IMMIGRANTS’ PATHETIC CASE. t Even more hardly is the present > dearth of housing accommodation pressi ing upon people in poor circumstances. J A well-known social worker yesterday 1 mentioned a case that illustrates the r terriEle hardships which some of these ? poor people are called on to endure, that of an Imperial ex-service man who - lately arrived from Home with his wife ? and three children. They occupy one room in a locality which, to say the f least of it, cannot be. termed ’’select”, 1 and pay 25s a week for the privilege. , it has no fireplace, and they have to r pay 5s a week more for the use of the ». fire and cooking facilities in the kitchen. L Two of the little onps lately became ill, and were removed to the hospital; the father lost his temporary job, and in order to pay the rent practically everything in the room was pawned, even ( f down to the bedding and the children’s i > clothing, before these unfortunate pop- i » pie heard of the over-ready sympathy c of Auckland's social workers. Help was I at once given, and the goods redeemed 1- from pawn, but there seems no chance of I | bettering their accommodation. 3 ' It is cases such as these that give rise 5 1 to thought, and even those who are apt ■J.‘V O . _£etqrAJßK tolhwt’fl .

4 may well feel a throb of sympathy and pity for the homeless who are enduring such misery in so prosperous and happy a city as Auckland. AN ANOMALOUS POSITION. “The whole position is most perplexing, and at the same time deplorable, said another authority yesterday. “Here we have, on the one hand, Dr. Truby King and others conducting a chi’dwelfare campaign, the Government protesting its interest and sympathy, and paying large salaries to people who teach the country how to keep the cradles full; and. on the other hand, cities full of homeless babies. Rooms are at best a makeshift. What is wanteel is more homes—small homes for working folk, unpretensious as you like, but affording a roof and shelter, and a place where the babies can be given something of the care and attention that can be given only in one place on earth—in its own home.”