N.Z. Homes For The Aged Held Up As Example

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28999, 14 September 1959, Page 12

N.Z. Homes For The Aged Held Up As Example

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 13.

The way New Zealand cared for its aged people was setting a pattern which many other countries might well follow, said the Rev. D. Caswell, Auckland city missioner, when he returned in the Matson liner Monterey on Saturday after a three months’ visit to North America.

“In the course of our inquiries,” Mr Caswell said, “we did not see or hear of any settlement even approaching the quality of Selwyn Village, Auckland, where no entrance fee is required and where the monthly charge is within

means of the pensioner. “I believe that this is one more sphere in which our own country, by building homes and settlements of a good standard and, financially speaking, putting them within reach of all elderly people with a need, is setting a pattern which many other countries might well copy.” The partnership which had been evolved in New Zealand between the Government and religigus bodies was ideal. In this partnership, a major proportion of the capital cost of building homes and settlements for elderly people was provided by the State and the responsibility of administering them rested with the religious bodies.

“I think that our legislators deserve praise for their businesslike, yet charitable, approach to this question,” Mr Caswell said. “My only grouch is that the Government is not providing its share of the necessary funds fast enough to allow us to provide urgently needed additional accommodation.”

Although the many old people’s homes in the United States were

built and furnished to a very high standard, Mr Caswell said, they were, in practically every case, occupied by people who had paid the capital cost of the space they occupied. “An exception is a sumptuous modern home built through the generosity of a millionaire, where no expense has been spared," he said “But even here the monthly tariff is quite beyond the unsupplemented means of an age beneficiary. For some time now, the Auckland City Mission has been considering the provision of accommodation for some of those people .who have the requisite funds to "look after the whole cost of it. However, the mission will never lose sight of its duty to provide housing up to Selwyn Village standard for those who cannot afford an entrance fee.”