HELP PROVIDED FOR FAMILY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31248, 21 December 1966, Page 23

HELP PROVIDED FOR FAMILY

“The Press” Special Service

DUNEDIN, December 20.

A South Dunedin woman and her six children who struggled for over a year on a near-starvation diet have won their battle to stay together—and a happy Christmas is guaranteed for them.

For most of the year, the woman has had to feed the family on a meagre £3 10s a week—the rest was paid out on bills which amounted up during a seven-week illness the mother suffered earlier this year. At one stage, the family was four days without any food at all. The children had to walk two miles to school every morning and back at night because there was no money for bus fares. Their shoes were falling off their feet, and they were inadequately clothed. Because they could not pay their school fees, they were made an example of at their school. The children were even forced to beg sandwiches from other children at school because they were hungry for so long, and the mother was brought to the verge of a nervous breakdown. “ADOPTED” Now the South Dunedin branch of the Labour Party has stepped in and “adopted” the family, and Mr W. A. Fraser, M.P. for St. Kilda, has sponsored an appeal for help. Mr Fraser said “We are talking about aid for children in countries abroad, and children who are dying of starvation there. Yet we have it on our own doorstep. These children have suffered all kinds of

physical and mental anguish through all this, and something has got to be done.”

Mr Fraser said the South Dunedin branch of the Labour Party had now taken over the family, and was advising the mother of help available.

“From what I have gathered on this case, the welfare services have not been all they might have been,” he said. “It is shameful that children should be allowed to starve, right here In Dunedin, because of bureaucracy and people who don’t have time to care.” Already gifts of groceries have been made to the family, and Mr Fraser said his helpers would see to it that the family had a good Christmas, at least. “But we shall not be satisfied until the family is back on its feet again, and able to start afresh,” Mr Fraser said.