LOCAL RELIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 6

LOCAL RELIEF.

' . The fact that the Auckland Metropolitan Unemployment Relief Committee is pretty well 'at the end of its small resources should he widely noted. By next week, according to the Mayor's statement, it may be left with nothing, though it has received requisitions for the supply of clothing for hundreds of men. The Committee is doing very necessary work, but it is dependent upon gifts of money and materials from the public, and unless it receives more of that support, or is helped by the Government, it will not be able to see the winter out. When we say that the Unemployment Board should consider helping all such Committees with direct grants, we do not suggest that private charity should cease to flow in this direction. Such charity will always be needed, and it is desirable that there should be a central organisation, such as this Committee, to organise its receipt and distribution. The Unemployment Board, however, should reflect that these committees are composed of busy leading citizens, who are giving their time to a necessary branch of that relief for which the Board has undertaken responsibility. The Board finds the work and the Committees help to equip unemployed to undertake that work. To-day's news shows that men are still being sent into camp in this wintry weather without adequate clothing. These citizen Committees have therefore a perfect right to ask for assistance from the Board. In the meantime, the needs of the Auckland Committee may be brought under the notice of the Auckland public.