SOCIAL WELFARE IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 9

SOCIAL WELFARE IN N.Z.

“Church Groups Need To Co-ordinate” MR W. L. COX LEAVES FOR BRITAIN If the church and other voluntary welfare organisations in New Zealand were to do work comparable with that undertaken by the Child Welfare Department, the time had come for them to co-ordinate their resources and work together much more closely—particularly in the field of family welfare and family counselling, said Mr W. L. Cox, former social worker with the Social Service Council of the Diocese of Christchurch, yesterday. Mr Cox, who recently resigned after three years with the council, left by air for Sydney on the first stage of a journey to England, where he will further his studies. “There is an adventurous spirit in social welfare work in New Zealand,” he said, “for in this country the field is still in a pioneering stage. “The work done by the State has taken some of the glamour off social welfare work —which is more noticeable in Australia and the United States—and the levelling of incomes has meant a lesser demand on our services.” If social welfare work was entirely in the hands of the State, said Mr Cox, it developed a certain quality that was “slightly out of step” with the attitude of the voluntary groups. “The voluntary organisations have more freedom of action —they are less bound by ‘the Act,’ and consequently their work has more of an individual touch,” he said. Sight-seeing Tour On his way to Britain Mr Cox will spend about 10 days in Ceylon and five weeks in India, observing the work being done there in his field. Then he will have a month’s sightseeing in Europe, after he leaves his ship at Naples. In London Mr Cox will enrol at the London School of Economics for a course in psychiatric social work. He said yesterday that he might return to New Zealand on the completion of his studies in Britain, but had given no undertaking so far. With Mr Cox at Harewood airport was Mr Mikaio Avia, a member of the committee of the Pacific Islanders’ Club in Christchurch, who presented him with a lei on behalf of the club.