Poverty problems

‘‘One half the world does not know how the other half lives.’’ This is an old maxim and its truth is apparent in Wellington today (says the New Zealand 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. A tour round some of the slum areas of Wellington gave a

representative an idea of the depth of poverty in which the ‘‘submerged tenth’’of the city live. In some cases it has reached utter destitution. Infants have been found by the epidemic fighters lacking any clothing at all. Women stricken by the influenza were found destitute of nightclothes. Women deprived of their breadwinners are left to struggle along with children, with no means of paying the rent, and in some cases with the prospect sooner or later of having another mouth to feed. One such case is that of a woman 21 years of age, occupying a house belonging to an estate administered by the Public Trustee. She has two children, and is expecting another. She owes five weeks’ rent, and is being ‘‘dunned’’ for it. Some official or other, having the official mind, called on her and suggested that she might be able to secure employment! Meantime 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 grow up during their plastic years in conditions that do not make for a sound mind and a sound body? These questions seemed to demand an immediate answer, for it is certain that sheer, stark poverty is undermining the physique of many of Wellington’s wageearners.