AIR OF LASSITUDE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 11, 14 January 1931, Page 8

AIR OF LASSITUDE

PEOPLE AT HOME

DCiliE SYSf EM BLAMED

(By Telegraph) (Special to "f hi Evening Post.")

AUOEIiANDj lStfi January.

An air of lassitude about the great cities of Britaiii excifipt Birhiliigham was remarked t>y fir* E; Eobertdti^ of Aucklaiidj wh6 tetiirntsd to-day" by the Port Diiiiediti; He said tiie people in the streets aid longer1 seemed to be going sdmewhefe; they no longer appeared to hayS purpose behind their walking; they seemed t6 be in no hurry td pftsa ftiun'd street edriiOrSi The' old air of something definite to be done was idst. jfdf that in k measure he would bi&nie the dole system; In the Mining tdw'ns of Northumber-, land, said Dh BObertdfij it was a common sight to 566 grdiipS of mfiii loafing about;, appareiitiy well fed aiid well cldthedj who seemed to Have nothing to do in hdjifs* The explanation almost invariably giveii was that they were '/dh the ddle ; " While he recognised that some system of relief for those unable (and he stressed the word "Unable") to get work was lieeessatyj he yet considered that defects in the working of the dole might be reniediedv

"It is the pfactie'e oi one firm, and more than One fiffn fcbout which I have been told* to Use too ddle to save themselves expenses in the form of wages," he said. "They employ their hands for part of a week, arid for the rest of the Week those men li.Ye on the dole. That is one 6f tlie faliaclefj of the measure. Another is oiie which one restaurant firm has feaiisedi When the annual leave of Waitresses came due, instead of paying them for their rightful. kolid&S tifte, the gfbpfietof merely dismiSseii them tempdrafiiy fliid re-eri|agerl,them.wlieri their leave was finished. Oiie oi the prominent newspapers in London recently published a list of similar loopholes. It Was formidable."

Dr. RnbeHrm's impressions hit> shared by Miss ,E. M; Baber, headmistress of Mafßden Collegiate School for Girls, Wellington, who spent some time in London.

Both mentioned the Bariri done to the moral fibre of the nation by unemployment and the dole.