SOCIAL WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 61, 14 March 1927, Page 8

SOCIAL WORK

(To the Editor.)

_ Sir, —After an absence of eighteen veani it is agreeable to notice the great stridesWellington has made- during that period^ During the past week I have not lost sj moment motoring around your imposing,city and also studying as far as I could^ your social conditions. It-was my privi-*; lege to be present at this -week's social? service meeting of the Hospital BoardJi which lasted about two arid a half hours J; I wonder if the people of Wellington rea4 lise what a fine, work the members of thi»: committee are doing for them? There is' no question but what the chairman of thecommittee, Sir. George Petherick, has aT thorough grip of the job he has in hand;'-! and the other members are well qualifiedfor their job, especially did the lady mem-' ber, Mrs. leaser,: show a keen perception;' of what was the right thing to do with eaclt' individual case. The work of Miss Kirki' the lady visitor, was a revelation of whatf can be done by one whose knowledge o£ the needs of the poorer people of the cit#' is so complete. . The Ohiro Home, where I spent som«-: hours, is one of the cleanest homes I havsK visited in extensive travels, and reflects^ the greatest credit on the manager andl matron, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks, who seem to/ have that sympathetic disposition whiclf' nts them well for their work. (Wellington, too, despite all her progressiand despite all the disinterested work of 1? her social workers, has many places stillj where the poor people live which are little? less than slum areas. Ramshackle build-?' ings of a past day which would be better^; down. This, however is common to all?' large colonial cities, and is not unknown fi m Auckland, where we have a larger pro- A portion of poor people who need relief*' than in any other part of New ZealandJi for, during the past year, the Hospital*: iioard has given away in outdoor relief noli less a sum than £27,000, seven thousand oSi this being given to supply the temporaryl needs ot the unemployed. „■ My week's visit to four, city, after tc«i Umstchurch Conference, has been a most}' 1 profitable one, and I am going back totl Auckland stimulated by what I have secnj; of the-selfdenying efforts of your Hospital*l .Board members and their social ■workers*" I must have looked very cold after E' came out of the chill waters of Lyall Bajaf which, they say roll straight in from ths'' bouth Pole direction, for no less than tw<» ladies m houses near at hand offered me a jU?,o£ cocoa > which I gladly accepted and felt a warm glow afterwards, when W bathed there on Saturday. The above is only symbolic of the warm hearts of tha; Wellington people, and are the thinga which will be remembered when holiday togs aro put aside and the work-a-day routine commences again, chiefly in connect tiou with hospital board work in a larga hospital district which comprises one-fifth, of the total population of New Zealand, and where the capital value runs into nearly a hundred million pounds of money, and. where each - of tho twelve members of the Board re--presents on an average twenty thousand people. My own district is the combined, four boroughs of the North Shore, Devonport, Takapuna, Northcote, and Birken* head, having a population of 22,000, and which is practically the whole of the Waw temata electorate. Wellington is going to be a great city. Her public men in thef past have shown vision, but what a-.worSf there is for the men of to-day to do*) There is no fear for the future if, every person will do his or her share. x Goo4i luck to the Empire City!—l am,.etc., . W. K. HOWITT. . 12th March. . :,■-'"'''■