POVERTY IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11999, 23 June 1902, Page 5

POVERTY IN NEW ZEALAND.

CRITICISM OF THE PREMIER'S

STATEMENT.

[l!Y TELEGRAPH.—-OWN CORRESPONDENT, Saturday. Mr. Atkinson', M.H.R., addressing his constituents the other evening, dealt with the question whether or not Mr. Seddon spoke by the-card when he said in London that there was no poverty in New Zealand. He said Mr. Seddou's powers of imagination had not deserted him in his change of climate. He was glad to see that the Wellington Trades Council seemed to be fairly unanimous in resenting that remark as being scarcely correct. They had only to ask the Salvation Army or the Benevolent Trustees or the Mayor of Christchurch whether there was poverty in New Zealand, and he regretted very much that the answer would hot agree with Mr. Seddon's statement. A Salvation Army officer told him only that day that there had during the past fortnight been over 12 daily refusals to admit men to the Workmen's Hotel fourpenny beds, and they had 54 beds there, which had'been full all the time. The colony's expenditure on charitable aid last year was £79,873, and the expenditure in Wellington alone was £13,027, notwithstanding that the cost had been reduced by good management and,.by the granting of old age pensions, which last year cost over £200,000. In the face of such figures as these, Mr. Seddon would need some hardihood to maintain the statement that there was no poverty in the colony.