Poverty No Longer Will Be Called Misdemeanour

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7060, 7 November 1929, Page 7

Poverty No Longer Will Be Called Misdemeanour

REST HOMES FOR AGED

Labour Member Makes Only Discordant Mote

From Our Parliamentary Eoportcr, WELLINGTON, Last Night,

given power to do this and that in the mattor of tho release of inmates but why should the Minister have to be given that power 1 Mr. Howard believed this Bill must be a baby left over by tho. Reform party (laughter). It contained gaol clauses which would havo the effect of locking up old persons, male or female, who had been guilty of nothing save the crime of poverty. “I repudiate the whole thing,” said Mr. Howard, “and whoever was the author of it, 1 say to him it is not much anyhow (laughter). It is not what it pretends to be.” . . r The leader of the Opposition (Mr. J. G. Coates) crossed tho floor of tho House at this moment to talk to the Minister of Justice. “Yes, tlicro go the friends,” shouted Mr. Howard. “They arc getting together. They see tho joko of the whole thing and I suppose they are hoping and praying they will not come under tho Bill,” (laughter). The speaker declared this wa3 nothing but an extension of tho gaol system and it made poverty a crime. It was writing into tho law of New Zealand a punishment for poverty. . “Evon though mine bo a voico crying in tho wilderness, I shall protest with all tho strength at my command against writing into our laws provision for the punishment for poverty,” concluded Mr. Howard.

Designed to provide authority for the establishment of institutions where unfortunate old people may be placed so that the necessity of committing them to gaol or a mental hospital may be obviated, the Rest Homes Bill was read a second tfmc hy the House of Representatives to-day. When the measure was under consideration in committee, two words, “destitute persons” were deleted from the front of Its title, some members taking exception to the original description of the Bill. . Mr. W. E. Parry said it was indeed tragic that old persons who had done their best for the nation in days gone by should bo thrown on to the dust heap like a worn out boot. This Bill was long overdue. It was shameful that old folk should be sent to gaol for no other reason than that they were poor. “I don’t care about this word ‘destitute’ said Mr. Parry. Hon A. J. Stallworthy: “I can give an undertaking to alter that.” Mr. Barry: “Thank you. I would like to see that word withdrawn, because I abhor destitution and all the causes which create it.” Mr. H. G. R. Mason was curious to know why,'if tho Government was so well-intentionod, it had not long ago gazetted an island in the Haurpki Gulf as a prison and having done that, used the island as a rest home. Had that been done many unfortunate 01-i people would have been saved 12 dreary months in a gaol whero they did not properly belong. Tho leader of the Labour party hoped that old people would no longer bo ichaTged that they were rogues and vagabonds, simply because they were destitute. The term “rogues and vagabonds” belonged to the middle ages and should bo dropped in all proceedings against old folk. Mr. Holland believed this Bill would be welcomed throughout New Zealand. Mr. Howard Dislikes -Bill.

The Minister Answers. “I am amazed at the utterances of the member for Christchurch South and his vicious attack on tho Bill, doclared Mr. Stallworthy (Minister of Health) in his reply. The critic, he went on, showed no enthusiasm and it was doubtful if ho had read the Bill. Otherwise, he would find in clause 14 that one of tho express provisions was that old persons brought beforo the Court for no crime other than poverty, should not even be charged. The present position was that a magistrate could only send them to a gaol or asylum but under the new legislation, he could send them to a rost homo without any conviction and without any hearing for a misdemeanour, so ho was amazed at the misconception in Mr. Howard's mind and would earnestjy 'ask him to make himself familiar with tho provisions of tho Bill. It was regrettable that any member should designate these Test homes as gaols or asylums. That was tho very thing which Sir Joseph Ward and the speaker, in preparing the Bill, had been anxious to avoid. Tho Bill had not been' forced on the Government. It had arisen from the necessity of tho poor old men and women who were being very harshly and inhumanely treated. It was a genuine attompt to make for better conditions on the lines of moro modern sociological treatment. It was an ontireiy new Bill and no departmental officer was responsible for its origin.

A different note was struck by Mr, E. J. Howard in tho midst of this harmonious chorus of praise. “Let us make it a Rest Homes Bill and leave it at that and not have all these provisions which will make these homes nothing moro or less than gaols,” he said. “It would be interesting to know who was the author of the Bil.. I don’t think the Minister in charge of it was the author of it but I think it was simply shoved into his hands and he never knew where it came from” (laughter).'; There wero prison '■ clauses in the Bill, said Mr. Howard..; The Bill was full of them, one clause, for instance, said that if any person took any undue steps to obtain the release of an inmate—if he did not dot his i’s and cross his t’fl and go by a roundabout way to somo official—that person could be made a criminal. Tho minister was