BENEFIT GRANTED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1945, Page 3

BENEFIT GRANTED

ILLEGITIMATE CHILD

PROTECTION SOCIETY CASE The first known case of a family benefit of 10/ a week having been granted for the support of an illegitimate child was reported at the first executive meeting for the year of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. The society has for some time been urging the Government to provide for children "Of 'unmarried mothers under the Social Security. Act, especially in cases where the father cannot be made to support them. Consequently the report, that one such grant had been made was gratifying to the committe. The secrer tary, Mrs. A. M. Hutchinson, said that many such cases were known and it was hoped to secure similar help for them. j Of 175 cases in which the help of the society had been invoked, 17 had been: provided with free legal assistance for Court proceedings, resulting in maintenance orders being secured for- the support of neglected and deserted families. Among these, it Was" stated; were some in which the' society took action on behalf of chronic hospital cases who were unable to attend the Court. Appreciation of a grant of £200 made by the Minister of Internal Affairs in support of the society's work was recorded. The Rev. J. J. Kelly presided in the absence of the Rev. J. Douglas Smith.