HOUSING REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 224, 21 September 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOUSING REFORM.

effect of slums.

MAORIS' URGENT NEED,

(By "FEMINA.")

The recent announcement that the Auckland City Council intends to spend about a quarter of a million pounds upon housing schemes, mostly within the central city area, does not comc as a great surprise to many women. Some were aware, of course, that it has long been the desire of many of those who are now members of those sub-committees of the City Council which deal with this matter that comprehensive rebuilding and progressive housing schemes should be immediately put in hand. Others, including women social vVelfare workers, have been aware that sooner or later a community must become acutely conscious of the fact that bad housing is a very expensive thing for any district which suffers it. Working time lost through sickness, chronic physical unfitness, nervous troubles, hopelessness and apathy, to say nothing of adult and juvenile delinquency, and even crime— these are the legacy of the Blum in any country of the world. Slum conditions do not need the environment of a city for their existence, however. Grinding poverty, the inability to earn locally the wherewithal to pay

rent for a good house, these can be met j with in the country too. So often the seriou3 illness of the breadwinner or tho mother of a family have completed the downfall commenced during the slump. The home, whether leased or partly paid for, has to be given up, and tho family deprived of that which gave them self-respect and courage sink down to a condition of living that is far too low for a new and progressive civilisation.

Concerning the Maoris. Particularly can this be noticed among tho Maori community, where for three generations now there has been the increasing loss of native lands tribally inherited and held. When the Maori population was declining, or almost stationary, there was not perhaps such urgent need to tackle the problem, except latterly, through a, general policy of land settlement in various districts. Of late, however, just when the population is steadily increasing, the landlessness has reached the zero point. With the Maori community, they are not so likely as the European to shift from one district to another perhaps more favourable. They are linked in sentiment and feeling to their own lands, and whatever the conditions, however poor and unpromising, they are apt to linger in their district. They hang on precariously, getting what work they can, and living as best they can, in whatever quarters their pakeha neighbours allot them or have rejected themselves. A good deal of very attractive and entertaining—as well as many perhaps over-romantic —stories are written--in this country about the Maori people, past and present. It is the intention of the writer to indulge in a little realism for a changq. Here, therefore, is a starkly realistic description of the residence of a Maori family of four—this number occasionally augmented by visitors, such as a grandparent, cousin, or kinsman or kinswoman, searching lor employment in the district. . The residence is a bag tent, with a partial covering of a rusty iron root. An iron chimney, is at one end, alongside the entrance to the tent. The frame of tent and roof is of battens of lacebark (houhere), and dry. fern is strewn on the floor in lieu of boards or carpet. The height of the roof at the < saves is but 4ft and. the greatest height at the peak of the gable is hardly over 7ft. On the floor by the fireplace is a heap of sacks and some firewood, while over a half-burned log in the fireplace itself is a small camp oven and a rusty saucepan. In one corner is a pile of dilapidated suit cases, upon which some clothes are hanging, creased but clean. Other coats are hanging from nails in the frame of the tent. _ An old pair of shoes is beside the suit cases. _ There are no beds and but one pillow is to be seen, and a large bath towel. There are two blankets, folded, on the fern. No other bedding is visible. Soap and three handles are on the ledge of the framing; salt and a tin which contains flour are the only evidences of food preparation. On the fern near the entrance is some white cord or twine with an old knife beside, probably used for notmaking in lieu of dressed flax—no flax now grows anywhere near.

No Sign of Sanitation. . Outside the tent is akerosene tin, fairly new, with a wire handle. Probably this is always used for washing clothes in, since no other bath or tub is visible Of other evidences of sanitation there is no sign whatsoever. Propped against an old packing-case a a worn-down spade and several discarded implement handles-reminder that the family whose residence this is are wo jn<* at the potato-digging. They earn several shillings a day, sometimes 3/6 to 4/G per adult —while the potato diggi „ season lasts. But a century ago the tribe of which they are descendants owned a thousand square miles of rich land, with fresh and salt water fishing rights over many a mile of river anc Sh lfc G is useless to criticise any- people for living nnder depressed conditions. In heart know.th "St, own bitterne*. and the less fortunate ones of our civilisa tion have their own psychology. It is, however, a matter of knowledge and experience to many that a very little will serve to give an impetus back to a higher standard of living; the confirmed nn'ssession of a piece of land, qjnploy ment of a regular and respons.bie^ml useful nature, will suffice in _mos instances to work the transformational once lifted they will not sink back It for some of us, perhap3, to hear that such conditions as are described above exist almost m sig to modern pa j instance is not actually in Auckland City, but it could almost be paialieled. What hope is there for the I W rel } b ° into such surroundings? If the , do not die from diarrhoea in the hrst two or three years of their lives, they not likely to extract pleurisy or the dreaded pneumonia when, after a week of rain, the small stock of dry wood is consumed and there is notlnn,, to drv their clothes or cook the hot, nourishing meals which all children need? What chance have the little girls to learn homecraft in this parody Sf a home? x , , ■ . tl ,p Neighbours often try to help, Jgit the problem is not to be solved b«|atch j ntT The self-respect and sfcunty Which ownership of land confers people whose life is linked with the land, sustained by the products of the land ■ must be given back to those who have lost it. if those who with ourselves com pose the "Iwi Tahi" (one people) of Governor Hobson's pronouncement at Waitangi a hundred years ago, are t have a fair sporting chance of sharing the advantages which civilisation has brought.