A FAMILY PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 6

A FAMILY PROBLEM.

NO ENCUMBRANCES WANTED.

Recent cables from England in regard to the question of finding employment for married immigrants with children- have once again raised the question: Are married couples with children wanted? From exhaustive inquiries made by a Herald representative in labour circles in Auckland, the answer seems to be emphatically "No." "; ■'- ,' :

The Labour Department claims that special efforts are made to place farm couples with children in suitable places in the country, but farmers object to "encumbrances." They are willing, and often anxious, to engage a married couple, but the mention of children, in nearly every case, ends all chances of employment for the willing parents. This is said to be largely, on account of the difficulty of providing accommodation. Another phase of the problem is that landlords in finding tenants for their houses invariably give a preference to a tenant "without encumbrances," and in some cases landlords go so far as to refuse to let their houses to married couples with young children. Here is a case in point: A working' man, who had taken a house in Auckland recently, received notice from his landlord that he would have to vacate. The man offered a higher rental, but it was of, no avail. The owner of the house told him he could not continue longer in occupation as he had another tenant wanting the house, who had no young children. The children had settled the question. Another disability that presses hard on mothers is the lincreasing difficulty of obtaining hired help in the household duties. . There is a very manifest disinclination on the part of domestic; to take engagements where there are children of tender years. , The only effect of these grave disabilities thrown in the way of parents will te a steady decrease in the birth-rate, which started some decades ago among the leisured classes in the Motherland, but has rapidly spread among every class "of the community in this young land.