BACK TO "NORMAL."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1932, Page 8

BACK TO "NORMAL."

HOSPITAL RELIEF WORK. AGED AND INDIGENT CASES. UNEMPLOYED TRANSFERRED. "It would seem as though we had almost got back to normal," said the chairman of the Hospital Board's relief committee, Mr. W. K. Howitt, after the usual meeting this week. "Our waiting rooms were filled with old men and women, some of them very frail and pale, with few wants and thankful for what they receive. These applicants know that their cases are dealt with sympathetically, and while they often come in apprehensively they soon find out that they are among friends who listen attentively to what they have to say. Apart from unemployment relief, which has been taken off our shoulders, nearly 400 cases were dealt with yesterday." Mr. Howitt said that unfortunately quite a number of young people, too young to register at the Labour Bureau, yet having taken on the responsibilities of married life, found themselves stranded in an overburdened labour market. It seemed a hopeless state of affairs, and while the pity of the members went out to the youthful couples, very little could be done for them. Many old foreigners who had always been fairly prosperous till the slump came, but had never bothered to get naturalised, found that it was a difficult process now, and that the Department was reluctant to have them on the naturalised roll, liecause as most of them were past the allotted span of life, it meant an old age pension for them, drawn from the national exchequer. The committee now had its hands fully occupied with cases which were its proper responsibility, and members were glad to "Know that elderly people could be attended to without being elbowed out by the former rush of applicants, who were now the Unemployment Board's enarge.