UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 3, 4 July 1922, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION

-"PROUD SUFFERERS HIDING

THEIR WANTS."

Unemployment formed the subject of a statement made to-day by Mr. G. Mitchell, 'M.P.,- secretary of the Central Progress League. He said :—

"The position is most acute. Many of the most, deserving are proud and hiding their want. Only the social workers of the Salvation Army and other insti-. tutions know how many homes aro sheltering crying wives and hungry children. Tlie wat^i'ront ir slack and watersiders are having a hard run. Numbers of sailors aro stranded here, and an effort is being made to provide them with food and shelter. /The Poppy Day Fund, plus the subsidy, will only keep the returned soldiers going about six weeks, and the matter of further help will be discussed by the Returned Soldiers' Association this week.

"I regret the City Council's delay in getting work started for 'which loan money has been subscribed. It has the money, the. work is waiting, and the men are idle and in want, yet we fail to rise to the occasion.' The perpetual state of unpreparedness and delay does. little credit to we people wlu> have a full table and a warm fireside. The Government has 417 men on road work, and I trust that it will not only be able to keep them going, but be able to absorb more this week. But other people besides the Government have responsibilities. All tho local bodies should do their share. But they have not done so. The, City' Council has done nothing for the unemployed this winter, except the 'soldiers now engaged through the Poppy Day Fund effbrts, subsidisnd by the council, yet it has a bigger schedule of work authorised than ever before, and has all the money it asked for. " The adjoining county and boroHgh councils should also do their share, and thus prevent men flocking to the city. One would suggest also that th» power boards should push on with the reticulation, thus absorbing labour to do an urgent work. The approaches to the Stokes Valley Bridge deviation should be undertaken. The surveys and plans are complete for the Seatoun v to Lyall Bay-road along the waterfront. Could this not be gone on with? Mr. Patterson, the. city road engineer, is a man of decisk>s and action: I think he should be given a free hand with the road works on the loan' schedule, with instructions to get the men started at once. A meeting Of the Central Progress League will be called early next week 'to consider this matter, and, unless other steps are taken in the1 meantime, it is intended to seek a joint meeting with the Civic League and Returned Soldiers' Association for the purpose of taking immediate action.

" Unless something is done at once we public men can rightly-be charged with neglecting an urgent public duty."