“Starving Children”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 14

“Starving Children”

Sir, —If there are starving children in this country, then parents are to blame. They get child allowance for each child. What are they spending the money on? They also get social security if the husband is in gaol or unemployed. If everyone planted vegetables in their back garden no-one would go hungry. The money must go on horse-racing or drink. Noone begrudges a bottle of beer, but to say children are starving in New Zealand is just rot. I read a report in the paper recently that children were lying on sacks. Well, where were their beds in the first place? If hard times fell, surely they still had their beds. As for sacks, the parents must be betting or drinking.—Yours, etc., R. DAVIS. August 20, 1968.

Sir, “Anti-Hypocrite” is correct: there are underprivileged children in Christchurch. Helen M. Gardner should open her eyes to the aspects of deprivation seen here and there. In this street we have four children who run practically naked all day; round the corner is a family that languishes in their pyjamas until the afternoon; another 1 know of send the children round the neighbours for a feed, even a sandwich; in another house a cupboard Is crammed with Dad’s empty bottles, wet napkins, and broken toys, and litter is strewn round the floors. Dad has run away and Mum fraternises with several male callers, while the kids haunt a backyard with grass and empty cases and pieces of motor-car making it a suburban jungle. AU this in selfrighteous Christchurch! Yours, etc., AWARE OF THE FACTS. August 21, 1968.