BABIES LEFT AT PARLIAMENT.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14064, 10 February 1939, Page 5

BABIES LEFT AT PARLIAMENT.

EFFORT TO SECURE HOUSE NOTE REGARDING FEEDING PINNED TO PRAM. Electric Telegraph —Press Association WELLINGTON, Last Night. An unusual method of bringing her claim for housing accommodation to the notice of the authorities was adopted by a Wellington mother today when she temporarily abandoned at Parliament House a perambulator containing twins about six months old. The babies were left at the Bowen Street entrance to Parliament about 9.30 a.m. after an interview the woman had had with a member of the staff of the Minister of Housing, Mr Armstrong. In the pram were two bottles of milk, a change of clothing, and pinned to the pram was a note'to the Minister with instructions that the twins were to be given their bottles of milk at noon. Informed of what had happened on his arrival at Parliament Buildings about half an hour later, Dr. McMillan, M.P. for Dunedin West, took possession of the pram and wheeled it through the corridors to the office of the Minister. After a consultation it was decided to call in the assistance of the police mat* ron and an officer of the Child Welfare Department. The mother was subsequently located and persuaded to return and take charge of her twins. She left the buildings with them in company with another small daughter, the police matron and the child welfare officer. Commenting on the woman's action subsequently, Mr Armstrong said that the conditions in which she and her young children lived were not good, and it was evident that they had depressed her. In fact, it was quite plain from her action that her nervous health had been seriously affected. MANY IN WORSE PLIGHT. ‘•I wish to goodness we could give a house to everyone who needs one,” said the Minister, -‘but we can only continue to allocate them as they are completed, in such a way as to give preference to the most needy cases. There are hundreds of cases in Wellington of people living in worse conditions than those described in this case, and whose applications have been in longer—in •.ome cases as long as three years. •‘This woman's application was lodged last September, and I would be lacking in my duty as Minister in Charge if I allowed my department- to be stampeded into giving priority to a case, simply because a • trick of this kind is played. We are in a position to provide houses for only a small percentage of the applicants in urgent need of them. It is evident in Wellington and Auckland that a State house is considered by far the best proposition, with the * result that nearly everyone wants to transfer to a State house. "We have nut reached the stage where we can supply everybody.” Mr Armstrong added that the woman's claim would be considered and a home would be supplied to her family when it was reasonably possible to do so. having regard to the claims of others. LIVING IN TWO ROOMS. UN ABLE TO FIND A NEW HOME WELLINGTON, Last Night. Under notice to quit her home cdnce September 1, the woman who made the Minister of Housing, Mr Armstrong, temporary guardian of her set of six-months-old twins today. has been unable to find a new home because of the unwillingness of Wellington landlords to accept couples with families as tenants. At present she and her husband are living in two small rooms, rented to them at 35s a week. They have a family of three children. The woman conducted a Press representative over her home to-night. The room used by the family during the day measures 12 feet by 10 feet, and fronts a busy street with noisy traffic and clanging tramcars. At night the three children sle p in this room, which is the only place the couple has for entertaining visitors. The twins have cots of their own, but the other child, a girl of eight, has to sleep on a couch. PASSAGEWAY AS KITCHEN. The parents’ bedroom measures 12 feet by 14 feet, and houses, among ether things, most of the family’s kitchen utensils. A small passageway is used as a kitchen, a stove ami numbers of shelves for provisions iring been installed at one ''llol. T 1 ; >;i "ageway also serves as a yard : r drying clothes, especially in w-t ,thcr. The other rooms in 1 o« cupied by the land--1 her daughter. A -mall out house at the rear of ontains the bath and laundry facilities. As the only way water for washing is by heating , L copper fire, the woman has iil.\ om- washday a week. All the hot wauv -he requires for washing the babies' clothes is heated on her gas stove. Last month her gas bill amounted to LT 4s 2d. During i be day th< twins can be left under a tree in a small yard at the hack o fthe house H the weather is fine. Commenting on her action in leaving her twins in the care of Mr Armstrong, the woman said to-night that she had intended leaving them ■with him irom about 9430 ami. till 4 p.m. One of the messengers attached to the staff at Parliament Buildings had pleaded with her to take the children away, and finally ■she had consented. When she arrived to collect her children she was advised bv an officer of the Child Welfare Department to send her twins to a home and to send her email daughter to a boarding school. REMA R K R ESE NT E I>. “I resented this remark,” she said, “as I have no intention of doing this. If l wanted to go out and I

care of Air Armstrong was to draw his attention to the appalling conditions under which we live. Now that the twins are getting older it is most important that we should have more room.” Her husband, who -is in the Government service, said he had come to New Zealand from England in 1928, and that bis wife had come to the Dominion from Wales in the same year. They had been living in their present home since A! ay of last year. Shortly after the twins arrived in August their landlady had put the rent up from 32s fid a week to £2 (subsequently reduced to 35s a week), and told them to leave as soon as they found another house. He said lie had searched all over Wellington without success. As soon as prospective landlords learnt that he had three children they refused to let premises to him. WAITING FOR EXHIBITION. He said that because ol his childien even people he knew slightly were not anxious to let rooms to him. One man to whom he had written had replied saying that he did not intend letting his house at present because ot the approaching Centennial Exhibition. During the exhibition period, added this man, he would need most of his rooms to accommodate his family. The husband added that when he was visited by an inspector of bousing his application for a State house had been marked “Very Urgent,” but alleged that several State* houses i earby were empty. They would have w» go’ on living in their present condition till they obtained a bouse.