AUSTRALIAN UNEMPLOYED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21714, 22 February 1936, Page 22

AUSTRALIAN UNEMPLOYED

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir —I have read a letter, published on February 7, with surprise. I can positively affirm that the statements made are not correct. It is quite impossible for a man to be out.of work for six-years. Relief work takes the P Sce of the dole and a man with a wife gets more work than a JJI m an If unable to work, by applying to he proper authorities, obtain subsistence up to 18s a week. Further, during the depression many institutions enlarged their scope. Every suburb of Svdney and most country towns* established reliet committees and in two years the suburb I reside in distributed £BOO, besides. clothing Men like Canon Hammond and the- Rev. George Cowie have assisted thousands. The "Hammond Hotels" and Hammohdville are monuments which we may well be proud of and assist. Private assistance has been given by thousands of people. I have employed one of the dole recipients one day a week for about three years. Naturally there was distress, but it is impossible for a man and wife to be on the dole for six years and receive no outside help. There will always be some people on the .bread line, even in good times, and I have some authentic cases in mind of men and women who would rather be on relief work or the dole than accept regular employment. ./'. ; •■• . No man or woman in Australia need starve. The wastrel who hangs about the cities prefers to sleep out in the Domain rather than seqk ; a .Salvation Army bed and breakfast, for which he is expected to do a little work. It is unnecessary, for me to refer; to the many splendid institutions for distributing relief, both in Australia and New Zealand, which are available: to all distressed people. Further, there has always been work for women, and at the present time domestic workers are' almost, impossible to obtain. . . , ; When these: "harrowing" cases are properly investigated, it. is generally discovered that the man himself is the cause of his:own. distress.—Yours, etc., ..AUSTRALIAN. i Sydney, February. 13, 1936.