NO MAGIC

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11154, 1 July 1933, Page 3

NO MAGIC

SELF-HELP NEED, “I am convinced that no good, fairy is coming out of the clouds to provide employment,” said Canon Hammond, in an address recently to the Sane Democracy League (says the Sydney Sun). The blight that was killing us, he said, was the determination of so many to have something done for them, instead of doing things for themselves. Canon Hammond said that the fact that he had 460 single men in four hotels and 4S families in three other establishments led nowhere. They were only a stop-gap. However, he believed that the qualities—courage, endurance, and adaptability—of the pioneers of Australia were only dormant in the Australians of to-day. They had been spoilt by having too much done for them. Guided by that belief, he, with the assistance of friends, had erected 18 homes on allotments of about an acre each, at Liverpool, and the scheme had been a boon. The appalling fear of insecurity of the wife and mother had been allayed, and by paying 5s a week, winch would be increased later to 7s 6d, the homes would become their own in seven years. There were 69 children on the site, and a school would be opened there in the near future, but the crowding would be a problem from the outset. The Government would not allow him to erect a school, and the result was that the building would accommodate only 40 pupils. The outstanding feature of the scheme was that the people were learning to work for themselves, and were better able to withstand a siege than people in the city.