THE UNDERWORLD

Otago Witness, Issue 3571, 22 August 1922, Page 24

THE UNDERWORLD

CHRLSTCIIURCH. August. 17 Slum conditions and unsatisfactory housing facilities were discussed at a meeting of social workers and the following resolutions were carried:—“{l) That the Health Department be asked tc. use the powers it possesses under ihe Public Health Act to insist on a!i insanitary houses in Christchurch being pur forthwith in a sanitary condition; (2) that the health authorities be informed that children are being born and bred in these insanitary dwellings, that the children tlensehe. are indescribably filthy, that attention has been drawn to these matters for some time past, but that whatever steps may have been taken by the authorities little improvement has taken place in either the conditions of the houses or children dwelling therein: (3) that whereas in some few cates parents mentally subnormal are living together, and mothers are git ing birth to subnormal children, constituting large families ihe care of which will in the near and distant future cause considerable expense to the Stale, it is advisable that power lie taken to separate such purer ts and segregate each sex in spur ial institu! ions. s;.<-h as. farm colonies, or that provision be made for surgical treatment.”