FOR WOMEN PROTECTION SOCIETY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 164, 13 July 1943, Page 5

FOR WOMEN PROTECTION SOCIETY

INSPECTOR'S REPORT

HOVELS, NOT HOMES

Publicity has been given to a case in which children have been bitten by rats, in a slum dwelling, and the report given to the monthly meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children by the inspector, Mrs. R. M. Metcalfe, who knows the house in question, revealed even more appalling instances of cramped and sordid homes where rats abound. In these places, the report stated, many of them basements with concrete floors and walls and without conveniences, whole families were herded together. Maori families in particular were lacking decent accommodation, although many had come to the city to work in essential war industries and could pay adequate rent if houses were available. For example, the society's officers visited a house in the city where 20 ■ men, women and children wtre living, cooking, eating and sleeping in one room of an old type villa. They had crowded into it in families as they came to Auckland to work, unable to find houses. Another family of five children, mother and father lived in a basement with no window, only a hole in the wall, covered by sacking at night. Thfsre were no conveniences, and the place was dark and damp and swarming with rats. Another family of seven children, aged from seven months Lo seven years, was found in a three-roomed cottage in a sunless alley, completely overshadowed by tall puildings. The mother complained of the damp and cold and the number of rats about. The children had got into trouble through playing on the streets, and the two infants who could not go out were pale and listless. Disused shops had been used- as dwellings, especially by Maori families, said the report. The effect on young children may be imagined where there was no playing ground, but the street and the home lacked even decency. Babies were born in these hovels, and the greatest pity was felt for the mothers who struggled in such awful surroundings to keep their children clean and fed. The executive committee of the society regards this problem, as one of utmost urgency, especially the housing of the great number of war workers engaged on essential industries. A suggestion was made that an emergency housing scheme should be put into operation immediately. These cases were found in the ordinary course of the month's work, details of which were submitted to the executive meeting, covering a total of 91 cases, and i&jjolving 452 office interviews and 74 visits of inquiry. Legal help was given in 10 cases and regular attendances made at the Magistrate's and Children's Courts.