INFLUENZA ORPHANS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 138, 7 December 1918, Page 7

INFLUENZA ORPHANS

MAYOR'S REMARKS STRONGLY ■ RESENTED. "I feike very strong exception to the reflections cast by Mr. Luke on local institutions," said Mr. T. P. Mills, superintendent of the Presbyterian Social Service Association of Wellington, to. a Post reporter to-day, referring to a statement made, by the Mayor that he did not favour the placing of children orphaned by the epidemic in any of the existing "homes or institutions. "All institutions in Wellington are scrupulously clean, and are thoroughly well conducted, and, moreover, are subject to Government inspection. No stigma whatever attaches to any of the children in the homes,' and. it seems a remarkable tiling to me that Mr. Luke should make a stir just now when children that ara deserving of equally good, if not better, treatment, for instance the children of soldiers who, have fallen at the front, should apparently not have come under his notice. The Presbyterian Social Service Associations throughout New Zealand have some seven or eight hundred children under their 'control, four hundred' of whom are in institutions. Seventy-five of these latter children are war orphans. Several applications have already been made for the admittance of children left without father and mother by the ravages of the epidemic, and the Presbyterian authorities are prepared to consider such applications favourably." Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards have frequently undertaken the placing of orphaned children, and have sent many Protestant children to the Presbyterian institution. Apparently the boards have been well satisfied with the care devoted to the children in the. institutions. It is noteworthy that those who pass strictures on these institutions know nothing whatever of their management or inner working, and it would repay those persons to visit the institutions at any hour, and so get an idea of. their modern equipment and management. There is nothing grey or cold in the institutions^ and everything possible is done to givo the homes every phase of home life. After all, what difference is there between children rendered destitute by influenza or by any other visitation? The best should certainly be done in every case, and the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board appears eminently fitted to deal with tjie problem."

Referring to the Government allowance made to orphans, Mr. Mills instanced the case of a woman who had made application for the admission to the orphanage of four children of. ages from S^ years to 16 months. The ordinary widow's pension for the four children was really only sufficient to maintain the youngest. "In my opinion," concluded Mr. Mills, "not less than 12s 6d per week should be paid as an allowance for children over 3 years of age, while for the younger children at least 15s per week should be paid. In many cases as much as £1 per week has to be paid to persons taKng charge of babies in arms."