EXTRAVAGANT WOMEN

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 66, 15 September 1916, Page 9

EXTRAVAGANT WOMEN

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS OF

THE WAR

DISCUSSED BY WAR RELIEF

SOCIETIES,

"Certain women," or in other words, irresponsible women, were mentioned at the meeting oi tin, Advisory Board of the Federated War Relief Societies, yes-: terday when war allowances were being discussed. The discussio;.i arose out of a, letter received from Mr. S. Willis, secre-. tary of the Wellington Association,, in which it was suggested that it was not advisable to allow certain womeu to receive allotment, children and separation allowances direct from the Defence Department. One case was quoted of a woman with five children, whose husband had formerly been a drunkard and a. "shirker" as far as work- was concerned, his average earnings being about 30s a week. Out of this amount, however, he lOnly gave his wife not more than £1 a vtaek. Since f,he husband had joined the col-jurs the wife had received as much ■as £12 or £13 in one lump sum each month. . She promptly proceeded to squander it, with the" result that sometimes the landlord had to go without his rent. The suggestion made was that in such cases the money should pass through a patriotic society, which after seeing" that the rent was paid could, give the weekly instalments to the wife. The letter went on to state : "We have several cases on our books where the women are receiving threo 'times n» mticVi as they have ever received before, and 3 they are not even paying their rent.

- The Hon. J,"T. Paul (chairman) pointed out that although there were probably many cases in w,hich money was being frittered away, it.would be' very difficult for war relief societies to differentiate.

Similar views were expressed by other members, tho general opinion being that the proposal was impracticable.