DIRECT METHODS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 14

DIRECT METHODS

TWINS AND MINISTER

WOMAN'S UNUSUAL ACTION

SEEKING A HOME

The Hon. H. T. Armstrong had his responsibilities as Minister in Charge of State Housing brought home to him in a novel and startlingly direct fashion this morning, when he was made the temporary guardian of a bonny set of five-monthts-old twins. The mother, apparently distracted by her vain search for a home, chose this method of placing the family's plight before the Minister, and for an hour or so the orderly and active routine of the Minister's office was thrown badly out of gear.

The fact that the Minister was just getting ready to attend an important Government caucus when the twins were announced complicated things a trifle, but the incident closed when the mother was found and departed with the babies and an officer of the Child Welfare Department. The Minister's reaction when he was introduced to the wide-eyed, pink and white visitors is not recorded, but it is reported that the twins took it all in good part and entered into the spirit of the thing. In the care of the Minister's typist, the twins were made quite / comfortable and contented. It appears that the pram and its occupants were left at the Bowen Street entrance to Parliament Buildings about 9.30 a.m., after the mother had been interviewed by a member of the Minister's staff. They were attractive babies, and extremely well cared for. With them were left two bottles of milk, clothes, and a note addressed to the Minister, pinned to the satin coverlet. There were also specific instructions in writing, that the twins should be given their bottles of milk at noon. Shortly after 10 o'clock, Dr. D. G. McMillan, M.P., arrived at the Buildings, saw the pram, and asked the messengers some questions. Informed of what had happened, he immediately took charge of the pram, wheeled it along the corridor, enlisted help to carry it up the stairs, wheeled it along another corridor, and burst in upor an astonished office staff. At this point momentary confusion seems to have prevailed. A state of emergency was immediately created. There was nothing in the rules about this. Apparently, however, everyone managed to remain calm in the crisis, and after a hurried consultation it was decided to call in the assistance of the police matron and the Child Welfare Department, the whereabouts of the mother at this time being unknown. SITUATION IN HAND. In a short time the situation was well in hand, and the twins, blissfully ■innocent of the disturbance they had caused, conducted themselves as wellbehaved twins always do. They were, of course, girls. Eventually the mother was found, and was persuaded to return to the Minister's office and take charge of her babies. In company with another small daughter, the police matron, and a child welfare officer she and the twins were taken home again, and the case has now been left in the hands of the Child Welfare Department. It is understood that there are five in this woman's family, and that they all have to sleep in the one room because of their inability to obtain suitable quarters. The incident, apart from its pathetic aspect, focuses attention on the present housing situation in Wellington in spite of the Government's efforts to meet the acute shortage. The fact that the Minister has before him at the present moment 6283 applications for State houses, some of them being dated in 1936, is a striking commentary on the seriousness of the position. In Auckland the number of applications exceeds this. During the three weeks of January, no fewer than 250 people were interviewed in the Minister's office, and on Monday of this week, 350 letters passed through the Minister's office. Commenting on the woman's action subsequently, Mr. Armstrong said that the conditions in which she and her young children lived were not good, and it was evident that they had depressed her. In fact, it was quite plain from her action that her nervous health had been seriously affected. "I wish to goodness we could give a house to everyone who needs one," said the Minister, "but we can only continue to allocate them as they are completed, in such a way as to give preference to the most needy cases. There are hundreds of cases in Wellington of people living in worse conditions than those described in this case, and whose applications have been in longer—in some cases as long as three years. "This woman's application was lodged last September, and I would be lacking in my duty as Minister in Charge if I allowed my Department to be stampeded into giving priority to a case, simply because a trick of this kind is played. "We are only in a position to provide houses for a small percentage of the applicants in urgent need of them. It is evident in Wellington and Auckland that a State house is considered by far the best proposition, with the 'result that nearly everyone wants to transfer to a State house. We have not reached the stage when we can supply everybody." Mr. Armstrong added that the woman's claim would be considered and a home would be supplied to her family when it was reasonably possible to do so, having regard to' the claims of others.