15 mai 1957 - Auckland Maori Welfare officer reports only 7.5% of families giving trouble or had "moral problems‟

Description:

The district Māori welfare officer at Auckland reported in 1957 that the numbers of families so housed that were giving trouble or had "moral
problems‟ amounted to only 7.5%. He noted that this was a very low number and that
the welfare staff had each problem case in hand. None of the families housed had
problems involving the preservation of law and order, although police had been
involved in three cases because of overcrowding or the need to ensure good behaviour.
Many families had been re-housed on the grounds of over-crowding and decadent
living conditions, with the support of the Health and Welfare Departments. According
to the district officer, one of the reasons for problems with Māori housing was the
colour bar or discrimination encountered when applying for rental houses or flats. As
other historians have noted, there was a colour bar in jobs, the rental and real estate
markets, while being served at hotels, with seating at cinemas, and even at
hairdressers.38 Of those who had been housed by the Department, 92.5% were said to
"have been seized with their civic responsibilities‟ and were thus living „up to normal European standards‟

Source: https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article/view/1748