Housing stock under pressure

During last week a member of our staff has devoted a good deal of time to an examination of the housing conditions in the city, and he has discussed the matter and its various bearings with a number of leading social workers whose duties bring them in to close touch with the poorer quarters of the town.

As a result of these inquiries the following conclusions are arrived at: 1. That slum areas’ in the Old World meaning of the term do not exist in Dunedin. 2. That there are a number of widely scattered cases of overcrowding in houses. 3.That the main cause of the trouble is an acute shortage of housing accommodation. Broadly speaking Dunedin has no slum areas, although in the city itself there are one or two localities where the housing conditions are unsatisfactory, where there is a good deal of congestion, and where very little sunshine is able to penetrate. The existence of these places is known to the corporation authorities, who are seeking to effect remedial measures as the opportunity offers. Again, the people who are to be found in these localities do not belong to the type usually associated with slumdom — they are hard-working, respectable folk, often with large families, and they live in these houses for the want of something better. They do not live there from choice, but from necessity.  It  would therefore be exceedingly erroneous to characterise these areas as slums. Of course there is a small percentage of people who, to quote the blunt and expressive words of one leading social worker, “live like pigs” — people whom it is impossible to help and who seem incapable of helping themselves. Conclusions two and three brought our reporter face to face with the very grave seriousness of the housing problem, showing these conditions to be a great deal worse than is generally supposed, bad as they were known to be.

Mothers’ and sons’ night at YMCA

A unique function was held in the YMCA Boys’ Division on Friday night, when a gathering of mothers and sons met together at a banquet. The attendance totalled 142, of which 69
were mothers, who entered enthusiastically into the proceedings. The room was gaily decorated for the occasion and everything started on time. The chairman, Mr Hazlett, said it was fitting that such a function should be held for the mothers. Mr Hazlett emphasised the aim of the association to show and fight for the belief that the home must be the pride of the boy and the home must have as a foundation the church. The movement for the bettering of the relationship between the mother, father and the son was developing all over the world, and he was proud to see so many mothers present with their sons.

New muttonbird islands claims

Mr Justice Gilfedder, who went north on Saturday, after disposing of Native Land Court business in Southland, has also been conducting the inquiry ordered by Parliament respecting the claims of Maoris for muttonbird rights in the islands lying off Stewart Island. The rights were reserved in recognition of aboriginal claims to the means of subsistence, and in 1910 all claims were inquired into and allotments made to certain persons and families. Since then, however, the industry has become of greater importance, and a great many Maoris now claim to be also entitled to a share.

Telephone contact soon for resort

Queenstown: The fact that telephone communication will very shortly be established between Queenstown and Dunedin is regarded with much satisfaction in this part of the world. Businessmen have been considerably inconvenienced in the past by reason of the existing lines being unavailable or unfit for commercial speech with the Otago and Southland metropolises. It is therefore a matter for congratulation that they will no longer find themselves in the position of isolation in which they have stood hitherto. Similar communication with Invercargill is promised as within measurable distance. The shortage of the supplies of copper wire has been the main hindrance to its accomplishment long before this.

- ODT, 20.6.1921.