HELPING THE UNFORTUNATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 6

HELPING THE UNFORTUNATE.

A CALL FOR EVERYONE. (To the Ediior.l The time in ripe for each of us who is in employment to take stock of our filled or partly filled purses and help those who have "fallen by the wayside."' While mothers are nearly demented to find food for their children, you would think the bottom had fallen out of the world to hear the wailings of some who have had the ten per cent "cut." I listened on the ferry to two overfed men commiserating with each other in this great hardship. One was groaning that he had lost twenty pounds at the last races. I felt like suggesting to him to give Ms mid-day dinner' to some hungry soul and lose an additional twenty pounds from an over-pampered body. Look at the hundreds (I should say thousands) of women of the so-called leisured class who spend hours a day playing bridge. Would it hurt them to take one family under their care and help from their own stores? If a canvass from shop, factory or warehouse were made weekly there would be hardly one who would grudge a small coin. If an art union was set going and all services given free by the bridge ladies, selling tickets, etc., look what a lot would be gathered in without worrying an already harassed Government. The good old Book says: "Blessed is he that considered the poor, for the Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble"; also "He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." Now who has got money to invest? This is a gilt-edged security. THE ABSENT-MINDED BEGGAR. /■