MAKING WORK.

Auckland Star, Issue 17, 21 January 1932, Page 21

MAKING WORK.

He that hatli plenty of peanuts Ami giveth his neighbour none, Shan't have any of my peanuts When his peanuts are (lone. This Girl Guide song, written to impress upon Girl Guides the moral of unselfishness and service, is capable of a wider application among adults to-day, particularly in the direction of making work. There are plenty of honest, capable men (not Communists) seeking work, but there are many people who close their pockets and will not provide work, partly from short-sightedness and partly from fear that they may be in a similar position themselves before long. There is plenty of useful work requiring to be done in Auckland city. If every house in Auckland which needs painting or papering were to be now painted and papered there would scarcely be an idle painter or paperlianger; similarly with carpentering, plumbing and other'trades. If your gentle reader were to stop making last year's suit do further service (except at the beach) he would give work to the coat hands, tailors, etc. Of course, I am referring only to useful work that is now needed, not to the useless work of weeding suburban roads. Therefore let each of us see if there is anything that requires doing, and get it done now. Don't let us wait till honest but despe- I rate half-starved men become the playthings of Communists and union secretaries. May I suggest the universal adoption of the following plan, which has been well tried in England. A certain Englishman decided that his. duty was to provide work, so he wrote a cheque for £10, and went to his tailor, and gave an order for a suit on condition that that cheque was not to be cashed for three months, but to be paid to someone else for work to be done. The tailor agreed and made the suit, and received the cheque. He paid the cheque to his coat hand, who paid it to a painter for come papering, and the painter paid it to his grocer, who paid it to his doctor, who paid it to his 'chauffeur, who paid for a perambulator, etc., and ifc was ultimately found that the cheque had passed through 20 hands before being cashed, and so provided much work and helped to make the wheels of industry circulate. SIMON WELTON-BROWN.