A DIFFICULT SOCIAL PROBLEM.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13875, 28 October 1910, Page 5

A DIFFICULT SOCIAL PROBLEM.

' (rRSSS ASSOCIATION XELEGBAM.) AUCKLAND, October 26. A problem in connection with the work of such organisations as St. Mary's Homo at Otahuhu was referred to in the annual report on tho Home presented to tho Auckland Anglican Synod this afternoon by tho chairman of the Committee of Management (tho Rev Canon Macmurray). Tho report stated-—"Tho future of the feebleminded girls of tho community who drift into our Homes and ■who provide almost all our cases of tailure, is a very serious problem, which is greatly exercising the "minds of the authorities in England at the present time, and deserves tho thoughtful attention of all" interested in tho well-being of national lifo in this Dominion. A feeblominded woman may have six or eight feeble-minded illegitimate children, quite incapable of taking care of themselves, who in turn become the parents o' a' new generation of degene- j rate and frebie-minded offspring, each • one a burden on tho Stato. What are j we to do with such girls when their j sir. months' probation is over? We ; know they are mint to go out into the j world unguarded, and yet wo cannot, keep them permanently in St. Mary's. Surely the Stato ought to provide a Homo for such cases. The net cost for maintenance would not l>e very' great, ; as such girls could I* usetully and | profitably employed in laundry work. | It is to" the neglect of such people ! tbrouch many generations that England is burdened with a vast army of | fceblo-mindod paupers, who are in- 1 capable of rising out of pauperism, a result which may be prevented in a youDg country like Mew Zealand if the problem is dealt with without 1 delay"'