HUMAN WASTAGE

Grey River Argus, 6 December 1918, Page 4

HUMAN WASTAGE

LIFE AND LABOUR IN THE

SLUMS.

"One half the world does not know how the other half lives." This is an old maxim, and . its' truth is apparent in Wellington to-day, (says tne Now Zealand l ' Times ") . The influenza epidemic has brought, home to citizens the. fact that a community canot afford to let the unholy trinity of poverty, disease and dirt run riot in their midst. Poverty, whatever its value may be as a disciplinary force amongst fit, is a social evil of the first , magnitude — -and one that any community that! tolerates it pays dearly for. Poverty is the root cause of the slum. It is not the house or the street that makes a slum, but the people who live in it. So that the problem faced by the Empire City is not only how to abolish, the slum, but how to remove the causes that go to the creation of a slum population. A tour round some of the slum areas of Wellington gave a "Times" representative an idea of the depth of poverty in which the "submerged tenth" of the city hvi'. In some cases it has reached utter destitution. Infants have been found by the epidemic fighters lacking any clothing at all. Women striken by the influenza were found destitute of nightclothes. Women deprived of their breadwinners are left to struggle along with children, with no means of paying the rent, and in some cases with the pros; pect sooner or later of having another mouth to feed. One such case is that of a woman 21 years of age occupying a house belonging to an estate administered by the Public Trustee. She has two children, and is expecting another. She owes five weeks rent, ana is being "dunned" for it. Some official or other, having xa.e official mind, called on he"r and suggested that she might be able to secure employment I Meantime s.he is dependent on public and private relief. But the rent has not been paid. What is to become of her? What chance have the childCan the Dominion allow potential citizens to "grow up during their most plastic years in conditions that do not make for sound mind and sound body. These questions seem to demand an immediate answer, for it is certain that sheer, stark poverty is undermining the physique of "many of Wellington's wage-earners. Poverty means a low standard of health, a low standard of living, and a low moral. Enervated by disease, the submerged tenth lose hope, and as they se c themselves drift down the stream. Many such are being helped by the nurses and helpers now engaged in curing and preventing the spread of the epidemic. As a specimen may be mentioned the case of two single women living in a hovel at the top of a certain street. The house was occupied by a family consisting of the two women and their father. The lat tcr has been sent to hospital. The paper on the walls had been taken off. The place has an uninviting aspect from the street, and although it haa been attended by the sanitary workers an evil smell hung round it. There was next to no furniture. On two stretchers lay the two women. One of them, aged 23, looked mere like 50. Her limbs were terriMv emaciated, and her hands were so twisted up that they' looked like claws. The women were helpless wrecks, weak in mind and body, pitiful derelicts drifting on the sea of life. Such human wastage represents a position of danger to the community. Ordinary sanitary precautions would avail little in such a case. Tbeir social freedom is a menace to the public health. Some kind of home is the only possible place for them till death mercifully releases them from their suffering. The general opinion of workers who have had some experience in slum work at Home is that the Wellington slum is equal to the worst they have seen. The people welcome the visit of volunteers as a rule a frequent greeting being "Thank God you have come."