City Mission Shelter

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 43, 14 November 1932, Page 11

City Mission Shelter

Sir,—My attention has been drawn to a statement made at a meeting with the Mayor of the relief workers at the Town Hall that the Men's Shelter, which is run by the City Mission, was refusing men who had no money. lam sure you will grant me the courtesy of a reply. My policy at the shelter is to refuse no man bed or food, provided he is sober and has no prospects of work. My experience is that a certain number of men eligible for work at relief camps refuse to go. In justice to the Government, and to the public who find the funds which alone enable me to keep the shelter open, I cannot keep such men indefinitely, seeing there is no prospect of work in town. It is destructive to the best interests of the men themselves to keep them indefinitely without work. I also want to state that those men with us who were paid 7/6 for the week were charged 5/- board for that week by us. Several of the boys who have just finished their apprenticeships, and who were unable to get work in town, have gone to relief camps rather than depend on me, and they to a man write back saying how satisfied they are with the camps. I find the problem of keeping boys of 17, 18, and 19 years of age difficult enough without keeping men who could earn a little in camp. In these hard times each man must pull his weight, and I cannot, and will not, spend funds given to me by the public in keeping men who will not pull their weight.—l am, etc., T. FIELDEN TAYLOR, City Mission**. Wellington, Nov. 12.