Society’s Work To Alleviate Distress

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29831, 25 May 1962, Page 2

Society’s Work To Alleviate Distress

Anyone unacquainted with the work of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Home and Family would be “quite unprepared for the introduction to hardship, cruelty, and great misery which exists in this country and which the society endeavours to alleviate,” according to the fifty-fourth annual report of the society’s Christchurch branch to be presented at the annual meeting on Tusday evening. An addendum to the report requests the public to report to the society any suspected cases of cruelty and neglect. "In a land of plenty such as New Zealand, one does not expect to find beaten and deserted wives; hungry, neglected children, and lonely old people, yet they are all too frequently found here,” says the report. “One particular source of continual unhappiness and worry in the home, often leading to more serious mental sickness, is financial difficulty resulting from the time payment system of payment. Too many parents of both large and small families are becoming committed to such obligations on a scale with which they cannot possibly cope,” says the report Outlining the work carried out by the branch during the year, the report says that persons calling at the society’s office seeking maintenance, war pensions, social security benefits and general help and advice numbered 1758.

Officers of the society had in addition made 1605 separate visits to those requiring assistance. The number of new cases received by the branch amounted to 362. Of the number of those helped,

226 were unmarried mothers and deserted wives with children receiving advice and financial help. Court cases handled by the branch numbered 112.

Specific cases constantly coming under the notice of the society included the desertion of homes by either parent, assaults on women, acts of cruelty and neglect of children, drunkenness, failure of fathers to provide for their families, and parents who mismanaged the home and family income. The president (Mrs A. L. Mardon) expresses the society’s thanks for the assistance and co-operation of the Child Welfare Division, the Social Security Department, the Mayor’s Social Service, the Hospital Benevolent Committee, Patriotic Board Fund, the probation service, visiting teachers, and the medical profession.