CHARITABLE RELIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1926, Page 16

CHARITABLE RELIEF.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —There are a great number of unemployed in Auckland at the present time. and there will be many demands on the finances of the various charitable institutions during the winter months, so I hope that those who have to deal with the difficult cases presented, will use a little more tact and consideration than some of the staff of the Auckland Hospital Board use in dealing with applicants for relief. I know of a case where a woman in an advanced state of pregnancy was kept waiting for over two hours before being able to interview the relieving officer. Ido not think he is to blame, for I have found him to be a kind-hearted man, full of sympathy for deserving cases, but I do suggest that even if the custom is first come first served, a point could be strained in a case like this, and nobody would be any the worse for it. Vow, sir, I will state my own experience. Being a married man with three children depending on mc, and having been unemployed for a considerable time, I was compelled to apply for relief, and requiring further assistance, I saw the relieving officer, who told mc to appear before the board on Thursday, at 2 p.m. Having no money to pay my fare, I walked in from Howick, and duly arrived at the Relief Department, reported my presence, and took a seat in the waiting room to wait my turn for an interview with the board. The order of going before the board is alphabetical. After waiting till 4 p.m. and, finding that my name had been passed over and that I should now be the last to be interviewed, I went into the office and said to one of the staff that I could not -wait any longer, as I had a long journey in front of mc, and was anxious about my wife, whom I had left in bed, with a high temperature, and that if I left town early I might get a lift on my way home. He was officious and said, " You should have been here before two o'clock." I retorted that he knew my position, and should have been more considerate. While we were talking the secretary of the board appeared on the scene and, without asking mc what I wanted or what was wrong, peremptorily ordered mc to clear out, saying, " You will get no consideration to-day." I started tc explain, but he refused to listen. Whether it is to be a feast or a famine for my family now, I do not know. But "this Ido know: That many of us, before making steps for the relief department, have had our full share of misery and privation, and if our tired and jaded nerves make us a little jumpy, still it behoves officials to be a little considerate.—l, am, etc., S. R. HALE. I -