UNEMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 10

UNEMPLOYMENT.

COMMITTEE'S PROBLEM.

MANY CASES DEALT WITH

(LAN UGLY-HEADED MONSTER »

BITTER COMPLAINTS BY MEN

Some of the really fit unemployed in Auckland arc in the direst straits according to the evidence furnished the relief committee of the Auckland Hospital Board at its meeting yesterday afternoon.

No fewer than 122 new cases of ablebodied men were dealt with, and the chairman of the committee, Mr. W. K. Howitt, states that all of them, under the definition of the officer in charge of the Auckland Labour Office, would have been a direct charge on the unemployment fund, since each man was Jit for some form of manual work.

According to the chairman, bitter comment was made by some of the men that in their quest for work they had been unsuccessful when they applied at the Labour Bureau.** Only 44 new cases were dealt with of indigent persons whom the board realised were their full responsibility. Pathetic cases were revealed where the scale of weekly pay was eo low that the men could not provide suitable nourishing food for sicl: members of their families. Some of the applicants had been used to camp life and had lived in bush slab whares with their wives and families while sawmilling or similar work lasted. They did not want to have to continue living in the city. "When they won't give us work, there is not much chance of their giving us sustenance at the Labour Department," said some of the men, who, when they complained there, were told that there was nothing for them to do but to go to the relief office for help.

Mr. Howitt said it was clear from the relief committee's experience that not more than i> per cent of the men examined by the medical officer of the board were totally incapacitated for work, and no one expected the Labour Department to deal with them. The board has always dealt with such.

"Seamen," he added, "are a problem, because they get exemption on account of thoir calling, and while there are some hundreds of them in the city, it is known that there is work for only a tenth of their number on ships trading out of Auckland. They are very insistent, too, that they won't go to camps.

"Much time was devoted yesterday to hearing applications for rents, which slio wed the helpless position many people were in. Any question of their paying rent without assistance from tho board was quite impossible, and women of all ages willing and able to work were amongst the most insistent applicants. What an ugly-headed monster unemployment is was shown in its many phases yesterday, but the committee agreed that they would not slacken their efforts to deal with what is undoubtedly a desperate situation, so that no case shall not be fully investigated and treated on its merits. Our greatest problem evidently still remains—that is, to bo relieved of some hundreds of men who are fit for light work only, such as can be done in places near their homes. To my mind they can be absorbed only by the close cooperation of the local bodies with the Labour Department. Their whole outlook on life depends on how the situation is met, and surely these men are not going to be let down."