Poverty Amid Prosperity

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 13

Poverty Amid Prosperity

Sir —[ t seems I did not make my reply to "Facts” sufficiently clear. His question "Should wo accept Cabinet Ministers statements that ’poverty is a thing of the past ami the unemployment problem permanently solved* to be correct,’ tempts mo to suggest that he could be a little more tolerant and perhaps more rational in his interpretation of Ministers’ statements. Could anyone intend to mean that no person would ever be unemployed again? If your correspondent saw a newspaper heading “Cancer Problem Permanently Solved,” would he interpret that as “no one would ever get cancer again" or that "the cause of the disease and the method of attack were known?’ As to the necessity for distress funds, may I point out that these are often used for exceptional purposes—take, for instance, the Hawke’s Bay Hoods, where his brother farmers were assisted—and isolated cases where the recipient’s case, is not specifically covered by Act of Parliament. He also asks “Why should the farmers feed the ‘I won’t works?’ simply because this Government is not sympa thetic toward them?" My answer is: He shouldn’t I New Zealand wants work ers —not beggars—and the farmer would be doing a greater service to the community if he made himself conversant with the various relief schemes . and dealt with each of his callers accordingly. —I am, etc., LABOUR TRUTH. Taihape, July 6.