CITY RELIEF FUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 116, 19 May 1933, Page 8

CITY RELIEF FUNDS.

WEEDIEST CASES NOT REACHED? PLIGHT OF "C CLASS." "It will be a knock-out blow to the poorest of the poor if only relief workers are to bo helped from relief funds, and -all gifts of kind-hearted people for the relief of the most deserving poor are not goin:r to reach the most deserving cases," said the chairman of the Hospital Board's relief committee to-day. "In the interests of the genuine aged and sick poor, Mr. Savage was right in what he said at the Hospital Board meeting this week, and he could not, in their interests, withdraw one word of it. There is dissatisfaction at the idea that relief funds donated throughout the country may be used in a sectional way and may not reach what should be their true objective.

"That more needs to be done for the C class man is undoubted. If the wages paid out by the Unemployment Board are insufficient for the A and B men — and this was represented by strong deputations which waited on the Minister during his last two visits to Auckland—what is going to become of the C class men, whose needs on account of their physical condition are greater than the other two classes? No hospital board that deals with the relief of C class —aged people past work, women getting on in years, with their savings pone and no prospect of work, and all the other honest poor who come under the heading of those needing relief—has at this time of stress resources which will enable it to supply anything but the most meagre standard of living. Distressed persons and all those working under the control of the Labour Department are on the books of the Hospital Board and the books of thp Labour Department, and officials governing these institutions will tell from their experience that the only way to deal with each ca-se satisfactorily on its merits is for supplementary relief to be dealt with by them, so that there can be complete co-operation without overlapping. The subject has been discussed, but confusion will still continue under a system which does not lead to unification, and the needy will suffer in consequence."