DISTRESS IN AUCKLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 142, 17 May 1929, Page 6

DISTRESS IN AUCKLAND.

APPLICATIONS FOR RELIEF. (By Telegraph —Special to Standard). AUCKLAND, May 16. An indication of the extent of the distress in the city was given to the relief committee of the Auckland Hospital Board when' assistance was granted to over 200 men and women, some of whom were in acute need. The committee was engaged till late in the day listening to narratives of hardship and poverty. It is a long time since the committee has been faced with such a task as was presented today. The waiting rooms were thronged all day by almost record numbers, and it was necessary to make use of an extra room to accommodate the extraordinarily large number of men who waited. Three rooms were fully occupied by the men and a fourth was assigned to the women. A feature was the number of requests for urgent help. In several instances the committee investigated cases of extreme need; and special and immediate grants of milk and children’s food were made. In other cases whole families practically depended on the orders for food sought from the committee. Mr Howitt stated that it was evident from the -large numbers seekjng assistance from the board that no improvement had occurred in «tlie labour market. During the eight years’ experience on the committee he could not recall a day in which so many had appealed for aid.