SUSTENANCE AND WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 296, 14 December 1936, Page 12

SUSTENANCE AND WORK.

Re the letter in the "Star" signed "Luck and Good Management," I should like to say I think he is quite right when he says while there is such good sustenance pay men will not look for work. They 'get illl tl,c l )!t J r a,l<l 1,0 nothing for their money. My husband, through no fault of his own, lost his job, and 110 one tried harder than he did to get work (there was 110 40-liour week, consequently 110 jobs going like there are now). ' After all o,ur funds were exhausted he applied to the Public Works Department for work. But each job they have sent him to has been further away from home (not that he complains, so long as he has work). His money, if the weather permits him to work every day, is £4 weekly. Out of that he is stopped so much in the £ wages tax and 5/ quarterly levy, against the sustenance man's 1/. Tho stores that supply the P.W.D. men charge the highest prices for everything. Every time prices go up, not only my husband has to pay the increase, hiit I have to pay it here also. So that makes it that every increase in price has to be paid twice by'the P.W.D. men and their wives. My husband has to pay 10/ fare fortnightly if he wishes to "see his wife and children for a weekend. I have to pay £1 weekly rent, 3/ insurance, 4/0 weekly for milk for household and two young children, and that leaves £1 7/0, without gas, electric light, /etc., • before myself and children start to live, and my husband's board and fares come from the weekly wage. Taking it all round, we would be far better"on sustenance than working for the money. It has been said that P.W.D. men are allowed to make up their time lost in wet weather. Well, on my husband's job they are only allowed to make up four hours, and last fortnight's pay he was 11/ short through wet weather, after making up the four hours allowed. It was stated in the papers that a man 011 a job. for 12 months would receive his holiday and full pay at Christmas. My husband has been 011 P.W.D. jobs 13 months. Now he and the rest of the gang are told that as they have been sent from one job to another, that has made a break in the 12 months, and therefore they only get three days' pay for 10 days' holiday at Christmas. What chance do we get to prepare for the future or to give our children all a growing child should have to remain healthy? I am far from strong, but the money does not permit me to lia?e what I should do to build myself up for my young children's sake. Were the married men given work nearer home, so that their wives could board them, then we would get a chance to live. "The P.W. men all have to work hard, for their living; there is no skulking allowed now. LIVE AND LEARN.