CORRESPONDENCE

White Ribbon, Volume 33, Issue 382, 18 May 1927, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE

(The Editor ih not resjion.sible for the opinion* expressed in this column.) (To the Editor.) Dear Madam. — 1 have ju.st lieeu reading your rejiort of the Presidential Add res* at the recent l'on vent ion, with its comprehensive tale of women's activities the world over, and feel that I ought to I mask on to you a remark made on the matter by another reader of the same was the burden of it, "would tell us more a)*out all the activities Mrs Taylor mentioned!* Will it not? We women need such telling by those whose work makes them aware of much that the home-maker often cannot And out for herself, but ought to know’, “For God. for Home, and Humanity.** How many women, for instance, know that New Zealand can and does send to prison her aged and infirm men who are innocent of any crime but are homeless. and whose senile state of mind and body makes them “unwanted" in such "Homes'* as we have? I have just seen an old woman of 71 in a women's prison—sent there for no crime whatever but that of being homeless and senile. We ought to have a State Infirmary for such cases, hut we have only u prison! How many women, again, know that New Zealand still lacks altogether any protection for her feeble-minded adults, and any Homes o»* Farm (’olnnies for feeble-minded offenders? These latter.-sentenced exactly as if thoroughly responsible, drift in and out of prison, helpless and friendless, and committing crimes through lack of understanding and selfcontrol, when in mercy to all they should never Ik* at large. It is the feeble-minded man who is the chief offender against our little girls. It is the feeble-minded woman w’ho most often becomes a prostitute. Yet New’ Zealand women still let the national neglect of them continue —I am certain lieeause women at large do not realise the fact, or how* gravely they menace us ull. I venture also, Madam, to enclose a letter from the pen of Miss Jessie Mackay, which contains information on the effect of Prohibition on hotel accommodation, that I fancy many a reader of the "White Ribbon’* will not know, but will l»e very glad tc have. —Tours, etc., B. E. BAUGH AN. Clifton. Sumner. May 7, 1927.