QUESTIONING THE UNEMPLOYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 68, 22 March 1933, Page 6

QUESTIONING THE UNEMPLOYED.

This unemployment problem is not to be summed up in mere pounds, shillings and pence. It has its moral side as ■well. As stated in the "Star" editorial "Questioning Workers," both England and New Zealand has a "means, test." But it is sincerely hoped that ours will never bo administered as it has been by some local committees at Home. Shorn of almost everything save life, workless men are compelled to tramp from one casual ward to another. These unfortunate people are driven to eke out what does not amount to a living, but to a sub-human existence. They sink in time below a line which no person can hope to rise above, once they have fallen below its level. That mythical corner which we were just going to turn if only we would possess our souls in patience has undoubtedly been deferred, although th& Government flattered itself some time back that this Dominion was just about round it. Nevertheless, imagination and sympathy are among the greatest qualities of human nature, and properly used they are the greatest of humanising forces. It is by the aid of imagination that we put ourselves in the other fellow's place; it is by the power of sympathy that, having done so, we appreciate the nature of all we are doing to him. Bearing this in mind, improvement is not, as you suggested, impossible with regard to this country's method of inquiry. S. GLADING.