CAN IMMIGRANTS OBTAIN RELIEF?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19271, 7 January 1931, Page 8

CAN IMMIGRANTS OBTAIN RELIEF?

COMMENT ON POSITION BY MRS E. R. M’COMBS

Recently a family of eight Canadians, after being in Auckland only eight days, made application to the Auckland Hospital Board for relief. Owing to the pressure of local application for aid, the board did not feel justified in meeting the request. Commenting on the position last night, Mrs E. R. M’Combs, a member of the Benevolent Committee of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said that the board had recently assisted immigrants, but they were not new arrivals in the Dominion. “There have been cases of assisted immigrants applying to the board for assistance within a few days of their arrival in the Dominion,” she added. “That was at a time when as many as 10,000 immigrants were coming to the Dominion in one year. There have been some most difficult cases and on occasions the board has paid part of the passage money of a family back to England in order to be relieved of a continual drain on its resources. In one case a large family was sent back. The Benevolent Committee during the past year has had to work long hours trying to cope with the great distress caused by unemployment.” An~officer of the board to whom the matter was referred stated that no cases similar to the Auckland one had been dealt with by the North Canterbury Board recently.