RATIONS SCHEME.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20610, 28 July 1932, Page 6

RATIONS SCHEME.

A FULL EXPLANATION WANTED. HOSPITAL BOARD ENDORSES PROTEST. The need for a definition of the Unemployment Board's responsibilities in the provision of rations for unemployed men was emphasised by the North Canterbury Hospital Board at its meeting yesterday. The Board decided to endorse the protest made at a recent conference of local bodies and relief organisations against the Unemployment Board's failure to make known particulars of the rations scheme. Mrs E. 11. McCombs moved that the protest, conveyed to the Board in a letter from the Mayor (MrD. G. Sullivan, M.P.), should be endorsed. Mr J. S. Barnett seconded the motion. The chairman (Mr H. J. Otley) agreed that the Board should press for information, particularly 011 the question of men who were physically unfit for camp life. , The motion was carried. Full Statement Wanted. The Benevolent Committee reported that after June 30th the Board, together with other Hospital Boards in New Zealand, had ceased to give relief to unemployed men, this responsibility having been accepted and apparently taken over by the Unemployment Board. The committee was now meeting only one day in the week. "It is not very clearly known exactly what the Unemployment Board's relier system is," stated the report, "and it would be of great assistance to tlio committee were a full statement made showing exactly the type of case that is helped by the Board and the extent of this relief. There are also t-o be considered cases of men for whom work cannot be found, and others with heavy family responsibilities whose earnings are possibly insufficient." Examination of Men. The Hospital Committee reported that it Lad been necessary to make I arrangements for the examination of large number of cases of unemployed men who claimed to be unfit for heavy work in camps or in town. The Department of Health has requested that where men claimed to be suffering from disabilities which prevented them accepting work offered by the Unemployment Department, the Board should have them examined and issue certificates on their condition. The reports were adopted. STATEMENT RESENTED. MAYOR REPLIES TO MAJOR ROW. The Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) yesterday made a statement regarding the allegation made by Major R. A. Row at Tuesday evening's meeting of the Citizens' Relief Association, to the effect that the request made to the Government for full particulars of its rations scheme was "purely a political move." The Mayor described Major Row's assertion as "utterly false." "Politics do not come into the matter in any shape or form," the Mayor said, "and it is quite certain that if politics formed the motive behind the request, local bodies 111 Christchurch who have asked for the information would not be parties to it. "In mv opinion there is more politics in Major Row's statement than there is in the appeal made by the conference to the Minister for the necessary information to enable distress to be adequately dealt with in Christchurch. State Employees and Politics. "The Government has recently taken a strong attitude against State employees taking an active part against it in politics, and it is time that the Government took a similar strong stand in preventing State employees from revealing their political prejudices in favour of the Government. The Government cannot have it both ways. If it is going to prevent State employees criticising it, it should also prevent them from boosting the Government in the manner that Major Row has done. "I strongly resent the suggestion that politics are in any way involved in this question, any more than politics were involved in the magnificent efforts that the people of Christchurch have made to cope with distress. Personally, 1 have no objection to State employees having the right to express themselves politically; indeed, I prefer it very much to the other underhand method of public controversy represented by anonymous correspondence. But I think that State employees should either have full liberty to tak© part in politics or be prevented altogether from doing so, and I certainly would not permit them to attack the motives of public men in an endeavour to defend and boost the Government that employs them." WOMEN'S DECISION. REQUEST FOR RATIONS. The women's branch of the Unemployed Workers' Movement has taken up the question of the issue of rations tc the unemployed and, at a meeting held in the Trades Hall yesterday afternoon, decided to assemble in a body at the North Canterbury Board's offices at 9 a.m. to-day and ask tor rations. The nice tin a was presided over by Mrs C. Clarke, who stated that there were numerous cases of women, whose husbands were away at the relief camps, starving in the meantime. In some instances they had large families and could not get sufficient relief from the City organisations. The secretary of the Hospital Board (Mr W. S. Wharton) states that the Board is prepared to grant relief to any person who is proved to be in distress and who is not the responsibility of the Unemployment Board. Such relief, however, can be given only after enquiries, have been made into tho circumstances of the applicant.

Mr J motion.