HELPING UNEMPLOYED AND NEEDY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 157, 31 March 1937, Page 9

HELPING UNEMPLOYED AND NEEDY

Hammondville Settlement at Sydney FOUNDER EXPLAINS WORK OF MOVEMENT “What these people want is not charity, but opportunity,” said Canon R. B. S. Hammond, vicar of St. Barnabas’ Church, Sydney, when explaining the working of his enterprises to aid the unemployed and needy at a luncheon given in his honour by the Young Men’s Christian Association of Wellington yesterday. Canon Hammond gave a description of the circumstances in which he had begun the Sydney ex'periments and out of which arose the founding of the settlement of Hammondville. During the worst period of the depression in Sydney he advertised in the newspapers asking boys who were out of work to come to his church, when he would unfold a plan to help them. On the appointed day he found a number of boys waiting at the door of his church and invited them to go inside with him. "You try it, sir!” they replied. He found that the church was so crowded they could not get inside. There were 22 boys in the pulpit! Later be advertised in similar terms, asking all the men who had been evicted from their homes to come to his church. The church was again packed, 600 men being present. Malting Work for Themselves. It was his idea to establish a scheme whereby those who could not be found work would be able to make work for themselves. A committee was set up to organise such a scheme. An area of 13 acres was first obtained and the people who were to be settled on it were selected so as to obtain representatives of each trade or profession required in the settlement. Each man was given a small section and, in addition to working at his calling, was expected to cultivate his section. There were now 94 families in Hammondville, with 384 children, and the figures were still rising.

Each family was given an acre of land and a cottage, free for the first three mouths and theu to be paid for at the rate of 5/- a week for the next three years.. After that time they had the option of purchasing the property or paying 7/6 a week for four years, when the deeds of the property became theirs. Every man on the settlement was insured for £lOO. Constructive Philanthropy. The reason for the success of the scheme, said Canon Hammond, was that it was based on constructive philanthropy and the people benefiting by it lived under conditions which demanded that they should work. The canon went on to explain bow the problem of “accidental poverty” was .dealt with. People were often rendered temporarily destitute through no fault of their own, and they must be cared for during the period of their disability. To overcome this situation a hotel had been established where men could live for 10/6 a week, the amount of their sustenance payment. In addition to the services provided by an ordinary private hotel, this one had its own tailors, bootmakers, and so on. Significant of the lonely condition of most of the men who came to the hotel was the' fact that on an average only six letters a day were received for the 300 men staying there. They had no human contacts, no friends. “People always ask where the money came from to start the scheme,” he said. "To that I can only reply that it just came.” For the last four years £3OO a week had been spent and yet no debts were ever incurred.

The Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, in thanking the speaker at the close of bis address, said that the canou had removed any doubts which might have been present as to the possibilities of constructive philanthropy. Mr. W. J. Mason, the chairman, said tile luncheon was the first of a series of monthly meetings to be held at the Y.M.C.A. rooms, with the object of giving tlie business men of Wellington an opportunity of hearing visiting speakers during the lunch hour.

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