Living On Sustenance

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

Living On Sustenance

PERHAPS you, gentle reader, I have never been on sustenance. You of the regular meals and regular work, lucky as you are to have escaped the tidal wave of economic trouble, may be interested enough to read this article. To make a success of existing on £1 per week one must be a combination of shrewd business man, conjurer and good cook. In other words, it is one of the lesser known modern arts. After tramping the city day in and day out in search of elusive jobs, one's appearance gets decidedly grubby, the pocket shamefully light, the spirits shockingly low, so there is but one thing to do—swallow the remnants of one's pride and accept sustenance. One must "stand down" a long, weary fortnight before "pay-day" comes along, and take it from me that £1 note feels good.

By H.V.U.

Th<j first item is accommodation. There i»» but one choice —a room with a small gas cooker in one of the cheaper areas of the town. When one knows "the run of the roj>es" it is no trouble to secure a room for a matter of 5/ per week. That leaves 2/ a day, approximately, with which to juggle. Next comes food, and there lies the secret of balancing the budget every week. It is possible to buy bread two or three days old at a 50 per cent or more "cut." A visit to a fruit mart, and one buys some "speck" fruit and vegetables for practically nothing. Potatoes? Oh, yes, but a good buyer buys up samples in marts —you know, the ones cut in halves bo that the customer can .see the quality. Everything is bought in thin manner. One shilling's worth of meat, for example, must be of the soupproducing variety for a start. (It can be turned into many different dishes afterwards.) Soup, properly made, can be a meal on* its own, and is very sustaining. There are dozens of little wrinkles connected with economical cookery, the chief of them being that simmering something for two hour* is less costly than cooking hard for half-an-hour. Reading material can be bought cheaply if one buys back numbers, but there are other avenues of diversion besides reading. Lectures, for instance, cost nothing as. a rule, and are both interesting and instructive. An occasional "movie" helps to divert one's attention from oneself, hut let it be "family night," or it mean* cutting down on the tobacco allowance! Talking of tobacco, have you ever noticed how "thin a sustenance man rolls a cigarette! If one possesses enough enterprise, it is often in one's favour to get interested in some spiritual movement, or the like. I his often serves a dual purpose; Firstly, like the lectures, it can be interesting; and, secondly, one makes acquaintances and sometimes gets invited to tea! 1 he daytime is usually occupied with a trip to the wharves on the ofT-elianee of a job. From 8 to 10 a.m. one stands with the rest of the "seagulls," and herds round the stands when calk are made. I lie jobs are few and far between, and more times than not more don't "et a day s work than do. Oh, thosp upturned faces; those eyes, pleading, begging, trying e\ er and anon to catch the caller's eye! There's tragedy there. They lemind one of a lot of hens waiting to have a handful of wheat cast amongst them. Still, unemployment U always ugly—-it is a great leveller, too. The remainder of the day can be spent hunting up prospects; building contractors mostly, with a bi-weekly visit to the Placement Office. All unfortunates who have become a charge on the State are not idlers and spittoon philosophers," as some ''lip-, pose. There is an overwhelming majority* who are eager for work and "raiin' to go. Provided one has a reasonable .-.mount of confidence in oneself, and a -ense of humour, one will pull through all right. Personally. 1 hale had the two extremes, and 1 can cay in all sincerity that a few weeks on* sustenance having to battle for mvsclf and make ends meet on the price of one decent meal a day, has been the finest training I have ever had. Who knows but that to-morrow J may get a good job? Lucky >t >s for me that I at last know the value of filthv lucre!