GENERAL ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 23

GENERAL ELECTION

SOCIAL CONDITIONS

MR. BUTLER'S VIEWS

Karori residents packed the Coun-} cil Chambers, Karori, last evening to hear the Labour candidate for Suburbs, Mr. P. M. Butler* Mr. Butler dealt with the major proposals of the i Labour Party and his address was frequently punctuated with applause.

■ Referring to the reductions in wages, pensions, and social services, Mr. Butler said that the cost of these reductions in the health and happiness of the people could not be computed in terms of money.

Figures given in the annual report of the Health Department, said Mr. Butler, reflected the effects of the Government's legislation, on the social life of the people. Some of them were' simply appalling. The report showed that of 57,154 school children medically examined 70.8 per. cent, were suffering from lack, of sufficient food, clothing, and warmth. .As a result of the Government's policy there were homes without the essentials of life. Children were suffering from malnutrition. . . ':

The birth rate last year was the lowest' on record. References had been made in some quarters to the need for immigration, but the best immigrant New Zealand could have was the immigrant in the bassinet. While an: increase in the number of cows, horses, and pigs was welcomed, the gifts of human life were being retarded. Mothers did not want to bring more children into the world to live in degradation and suffering. New Zealand was richer today in goods and services than it had ever been, and yet the human race was decaying.; The population of the mental hospitals had increased, while we had in the past year • heavier per capita return for suicides/