HOSTEL NEEDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 87, 14 April 1931, Page 11

HOSTEL NEEDED.

GIRLS IN AUCKLAND. LABOUR M.P.'S SUGGESTION. GOVERNMENT ASKED TO ACT. "NONE NEED BE HUNGRY." (By Telrgr-iph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The establishment by the Government of a temporary hostel to properly house and feed unemployed women and girls in Auckland is advocated by Mr. W. E. Parry (Lab.,. Auckland Central), who, in the House yesterday, directed attention to the Press reports of the plight of workless females in the northern city. Mr. Parry holds that it is the duty of the Government to establish such a hostel, in view of its failure to find work for the unfortunate women. "There are," he states, "a number oT reputable women in Auckland who will assist the Government in the work, and the running of the hostel will involve little or no expense outside the actual cost of food. While this suggestion is not a solution of the problem of finding work, it is one that would ensure the women and girls receiving food and shelter until they,can find work. At the same ' time it would lift the responsibility from hospital -boards and place the institutions outside the present feeling of obtaining charitable aid." : . ; When the question was raised in the House, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, Minister of Health, who is in charge of the Government's relief organisation, replied that he was taking active steps to give all the • relief possible. There, was no reason, he added, why any young woman should need to sleep out of doors or go hungry in the city of Auckland. Organisation, existed there for the provision of shelter and food for women in such necessitous circumstances, and it only required application to be made to! the Hospital Board by the woman, or ' pome agency on her behalf, to enable the case to be met. The Minister said he appreciated that during the past week or two the general position had become more or less acute, but he was taking active steps with hospital boards and j allied oi-ganisations to meet the eitua-1 tion oil a larger scale and in the most satisfactory manner possible. Mr Parry: Why dots'not the Government do it itself ? Mr. J. O'Brien (Lab., Westlandj: What steps are you taking? The Minister did not reply. |