“CLOSE TO TRAGEDY FOR WEEKS”

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 114, 7 February 1935, Page 10

“CLOSE TO TRAGEDY FOR WEEKS”

Clergyman Lives With Unemployed COULDN’T SLEEP BECAUSE j OF HUNGER In a recent vacation from his duties as Presbyterian minister at Miramar, the Rev. D. M. Martin set out to’join the Wellington unemployed anil to live as they live. For three weeks he was one of them, working on relief ami as one of the typical down-at-heel canvassers, sleeping most of Hie time in a cheap room with other relief workers, and even, for two nights, staying at the City Mission shelter at the invitation of Hie mlssioner, Hie Rev. Fielden Taylor. Mr. Martin Ims written the following account of his experiences :— "Well, you see. I got fed up of having to accept the statements of others who probably didn't know any more about it than I did, so I just went out to see what was what for myself. It wasn’t a very extraordinary thing to do. Anyone can do it; in fact, before a man takes any right to pronounce judgment on the unemployed man and the unemployment, situation in New Zealand, he ought to do it Otherwise he deserves to be told that he doesn’t know what lie’s talking about. 1 can say that, at least, it lias given me a new angle on the whole situation, and 1 am happy to say that I have nailed down a good many of the lies that most of us implicitly believe “Costs 10/- a Week.” "You don’t need a very expensive outfit, you know, to disgtiise yourself as a man out of a job. And expenses are very much lighter than simply staying at home. It costs ten shillings a week. If anyone can’t live on that, then he possesses less wisdom than the Government, because up till a week ago they expected men to do it, and hundreds of them in Wellington were trying. I have gone round among these people as one of themselves, trying to get at their point of view; and it is high time somebody came out to represent that point, of view. “The very first lie that ought to be hung up by the neck until it is dead is the lie that there is no hunger in.. New Zealand. My opportunities over three weeks were pretty limited. But as a man living on 10/a week, I'll tell the world that a man is .hungry all the time. Even living in the most economical way possible, which is to avail oneself of the facilities provided by charity; it is ■not possible to avoid being hungry for most of tlie time. Sometimes I couldn’t get to sleep for the emptiness of my inside. And men have been enduring such hunger for months and even years. "I was told by a woman that there’ were times when she and her husband and three children had almost no food whatever for a week at a time. I was in a house last week where the children had been put to bed night after night without food. And they bad been crying for it. In many houses, the man of the house goes to his relief job without breakfast and witli two or three slices of dry bread for his lunch. I’m not exaggerating; I’ve seen them. A man with four children lias been receiving 37/6 a week, but a first charge on that is rent. By the time it is paid (and don’t forget that many relief workers have to Jie about themselves to get a house at all, because many landlords won't take relief workers), there is left at the very most 17/6, less than three shillings for each mouth to be. fed. And, of course, clothing, fuel, electricity, • boot repairs, and all the other odds and ends of the household must come out of that. "I found it impossible to avoid being hungry on 10/. for one. God only knows how they manage on 37/6 for six and seven and eight. To say that there is no such thing as hunger in this country is a lie. That was tlie thing I heard about over and over again. One way I had of getting into conversation witli people was (o canvass with soap and other articles. And it was a story I heard at many a door. “These are just general impressions, and I daresay there are exceptions to all these tilings. There are wasters among the unemployed as there are among any other body of men. But I can tell you this: If my church decided to appoint an itinerant ‘missioner to tlie unemployed,’ not to preach at them but to lie their servant, my name would lie first down on the list. Because whatever their shortcomings may be —if some of them drink and and swear and sell their >,bodies for gain, if they are sometimes liars uni'eiiable, and ‘extravagant’ (I have heard of families ‘extravagant’ on 37/7. a week!), if they grasp at such pleasures as alcohol and picture shows to help them to forget—don’t forget that wp are all what circumstances make us. that only tlie truly great can be greater than their environment, The "-Undeserving” Case.

"I've heard people talk a good deal about ‘undeserving cases.’ Tlie. 'undeserving' ease is that of the man or woman who refuses to let Hie children starve without a struggle. There are two things to do—no. there are three. The first is to go ‘red’ and Hie brand of ‘agitator’ is often attached to anyone, man or woman, who refuses to cultivate the virtue of meekness iu adversity and tries to secure clianges in Hie method of doing tilings. The second is to join what they call ‘Hie sugar ling brigade,' and to regard evei'y charitable organisation as fair game. This is the most difficult. Even Hie woman witli front of brass and a sugar bag clutched in her hand lias had to swallow before she faced Hie inquisition of organised ‘charity.’ Some of them, to my own knowledge, weep before they face the music of sweet charity.

"I'm hanged if I blame them for getting what they can. And what they get is usually disgraceful in quality and a pittance in quantity. If there are children crying ai home, who can criticise them? Feeding six or seven on 17/6 a week I How on earth can any sensible man expect them to do it? And yet these are called ‘undeserving’ cases if it is discovered Hint they are getting a miserable crumb from more than two or three org.itiisations. I should think that to do what they are doing is as difficult and nerve-racking and humiliating a j o l,_ anl l the poorest paid by far—in the whole wide world. Dogs don’t mind being thrown bones, because no doubt they share man's illusion Hint man is the superior animal. But it isn't comforting to lie thrown bones continually by people who. whatever human standards may say. are no greater than you in the sight of God.’