CLERICAL WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 8

CLERICAL WORKERS

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In your issue of 2nd inst. it states in a report from Dunedin that Mr. Bromley, one of the members of the newlyappointed board, was of the opinion that "it" was impossible for the board to set the machinery for, sustenance in action between now and Christmas time, etc." Mr. Bromley also emphasised the necessity for co-operation between the board and public bodies in the matter of finding work. This is good as far as it goes, for fit, strong men, but where do the many hundreds of partially or wholly unemployed clerks, musicians, salesmen, etc., come in in the scheme? Instancing my own experience of 24 years' clerical employment with one firm, I have been more or less unemployed for two or three years, having failed at the age of 55 to stand the strain of one or two attempts at pick and shovel work, and I know of many such cases in and around Wellington. Also, like many others, my first 7s 6d was paid to-day out of borrowed money. As a rule it is better not to offer advice to authorities on the' conduct of affairs, but in this instance a timely suggestion may not be unwelcome, and may even result in a few of the clerical unemployed finding some work. The board will be involved in a large amount of correspondence for many months, there will be considerable filing, etc., to be done, which some of us would be quite willing to undertake for £3 or £4 per week. Let it not be said that we shall be told that all this work is carried out by salaried Government clerks and a host of girls, and there is no suitable work forthcoming for us. —I am, etc.,