POINTS FROM LETTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 282, 28 November 1932, Page 14

POINTS FROM LETTERS.

SUBURBAN UNEMPLOYED. In reply to Mr. Slaughter, I may say we have first-hand information that the cut has not been imposed on at least one district up to the end of this week. However, this is not our bone of contention. We have been cut till our pittance is 40 per cent below those in the metropolitan area. Our real complaint is that the Unemployment Board will insist on treating us as country men when we have not the opportunities that may be available to real rural workers to make « few shillings at harvesting, potato digging or other farm work. In proof of this I would like to say that I spent two all days in each of the last three week? on my bicycle looking for ensilage or hay making, and I covered a good deal of ground. I have not been able to get one hour's work, and I can use any farru implement or do any farm work; and out of 130 unemployed in this district I know only of two who were lucky enough to secure, a day or two at such work. As for country workers being in a better position because they have no tram fares, I would like to point out that that applies only to probably less than half of the metropolitan area. We have men in this district walking over four miles to work, and others cycling over five miles, and, of course, paying for the upkeep of their machines themselves, and on rough roads at that. As to rents, I doubt if they are less than in the other suburbs which come under the metropolitan area, or, indeed, the city itself. Again, with regard to men in the city standing down, Mr. Slaughter omits to state that such men get sustenance at the rate of £1 per week, and other assistance puts them on a better footing than men who are working. We get no assistance of any sort during our stand-down week. I am quite satisfied that if the Unemployment Board would only take the trouble to go fully into the facts of our case we would be put on the metropolitan allocation at once. • C. A. TURNER. Manurcwa. '