Marrying on Charitable Aid

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7284, 11 October 1933, Page 3

Marrying on Charitable Aid

A NEW PROBLEM ARISES Evidence of the 'appearance in New Zealand of those conditions which have been experienced in England and which can be traced to the problem of unemployment, was given by Cr. J. Boyce, the council’s representative on the Palmerston North Hospital Board, at yesterday’s meeting of the JVlanawatu County Council. In the course of his remarks • iu a discussion upon the proposals of the Palmerston North Hospital Board to meet the increasing demands on the service offered by the hospital, Cr. Boyce, speaking generally, said that there was another problem which was exercising the minds of public hospital authorities. It was rather a serious matter and, he confessed, a delicate one, but at the same time he could not see why steps had not been taken to meet it. There was a big percentage of patients in hospitals who had been there for years. Thero were a very largo number of people living on charitable aid and their children were doing likewise and what was rather startling, people were uctualy getting married on the strength of charitable aid. The same symptoms were to be seen all over the world and there did not appear to bo any effort made to control it. The speaker went on to refer to what was happening in the case of the mentally defective and the physically unlit. Such unfortunates were allowed to marry and, unable to face the world, became a charge on the charitable aid of the country. It was a delicate problem but one which would have to be faced. It appeared extraordinary to him that nothing had been done to stop it.

Cr. J. It. I’errett mentioned that there had been some effort towards introducing legislation to meet such conditions but tho public as a whole was not entirely sympathetic. The problem was being tackled in other countries and ho agreed that something should be done. This issue was not discussed further.