SUSTENANCE MEN AND EMPLOYMENT

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22108, 2 June 1937, Page 7

SUSTENANCE MEN AND EMPLOYMENT

TO TBB EDITOB O* TH? PRESS Sir, —Under our present Labour regime (which I am not out specially to assail) the bureaucracy has Brown *t an amazing rate and the neonle are held under the heel of Bumbledom and ground by t>ettv tyrannies and proscriptions which chafe and irritate. Here are three instances of such tyranny. A young man engaged on th'- 1 Lewis P*ss job. where hj» h"d b°eri for more than a year without any comnlaint having been reeist°r P d against him, left that work at New Year to seek harvesting. He was unsuccessful. In Chri<?tchurch he went to report to the Labour Bureau and learned that he would get neither work nor sustenance there as he had left his job without his clearance card or ticket of leave —which until then he did not know it was necessary to obtain. Ever since then he has been endeavouring to secure his reinstatement to the status of a qualified worker. When I met him the other day he had not secured that, but he has naturally been sentenced to months of idleness and pennilessness for an unwitting breach of a departmental rule. I know another case that is on all fours with this one. It would not be so tyrannous if there was a time limit for such sentences of excommunication, but there appears to be none. There are several registered unemDloyed men who eke out a few shillings weekly by canvassing or hawking. They have been notified that if they do not discontinue canvassing they will lose their sustenance allowance. Surely this is grinding the faces of the poor with a vengeance—and it is done by the Labour Government!— Yours, etc, QUIDNUNC. May 29, 1937. [Mr M. Ross. District Placement Officer, said when this letter was referred to him. "In the case of any person who has left private employment without good reason, the person is considered voluntarily unemployed and is not eligible for relief. Arrangementswere made under which the Public Works Department would grant leave to anyone who desired to take up harvest work. When leave was granted

works when the harvesting was finished. Persons engaged in canvassing or hawking cannot be granted relief."]