Letters in Brief

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 149, 20 March 1931, Page 11

Letters in Brief

“For military, prison-like, severity of autocratic rule, I have to give the palm to Wellington Public Library,” writes “Public,” who adds: “The seats in the reference rooms are all arranged on one side of'each table only. On a recent evening. to avoid a strong draught from an open window, I pulled a chair to an empty table, to its unused side, not realising the enormity of. the offence. Instantly an attendant came up to request me to leave it and sit in the lines facing west. ‘The rules of the library. Everyone must face the same way!' Rather than face the draught J was forced to give up my study and retire. Did anyone ever hear of anything so absurd? Needless to say, not another library in New Zealand has any such rule.” While applauding the wonderful manner in which support has been forthcoming for the male unemployed and for earthquake relief, “Nurse” enters a plea for the hundreds of unemployed single women and girls in the Dominion who, however willing they are to work, cannot get employment. There are, the correspondent remarks, “many married women in this country filling various positions who have comfortable homes, and husbands who can support them, and smdi women, she contends, should give their needy sisters a chance of a livelihood. .. . “Perhaps,” concludes “Nurse,” “someone else ean suggest other ways of helping the needy women of the country.” A protest is entered by “Fair Play” against a continuation of the present immigration policy while there are so many men, women and girls unemployed in the Dominion. This policy it is claimed is creating more poverty and putting money into the hands of the few who hold it instead of spending. The correspondent urges that as matters stand no organisation should be allowed to bring any more people out under any conditions whatayetj.