SUSTENANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 31, 6 August 1934, Page 11

SUSTENANCE

WHAT THE MEN THINK

SAVING TO BOARD

Tho following..statement as to the view of the National Unipn of 'Unem-. ployed of the sustenance proposals put forward by tho Unemployment Board was made today:— The problem which the Unemployment Board has, by its refusal to continue subsidising the administration costs of city relief works, set the "Wellington City Council, merely anticipates the logical end of tho No. ,5 scheme and tho system built thereon. In fact, all the unemployment relief schemes,, with the exception of one, are destined to end as all mere expedients end, by leaving the evil of unemployment worse than in the beginning. The exception, the small farms scheme (but not on ten acres) could be made to do the one thing necessary, that is, to removefamilies from. State assistance, .by initial Kelp to'establish/themselves as independent, 'setf-susfainiii g- citizens. ■-. ■'• ■ -- Tha'-Mayor- and'-Mf. W ; Bromley, of' the board, in references to the situa* tion which has now arisen, both express' tho same hope: "That many men might prefer the new sustenance rates without work to the ordinary earnings at relief work." . His Worship suggested tho possibility of asking the men to ballot on the* issue. The issue ..to. be decided is not whether a man wishes to work or not; It is an. • issue which concerns simple things, such1 as food, clothing, and shelter for the men's dependants.,, and in official figures should be stated thus: — Do the families dependent upon relief earnings in the following typical (and most numerous classes) agree to accept the .new cuts- in the amount of money they shall receive to provide life's essentials? These are as follows (number of families affected in parentheses) : — - . • , Less than relief by, <M. lier week. c/o Married men. wife and'no fam- ' ■ ily (002) ...-;■ ........... 2/6 ■ 11 • Married men, wife and 1 child . (533) , 4/6 164-11 Married men, wife and 2 child-' ren (358). '..- 6/6 .20 , . Married.men, wife and 3 children (231) .............. 0/6 ' 2.j 1-3 FURTHER DESCENT. The above are sufficient' to- indicate tho nature of the real issue, a descent from a proved insufficient level of existence to a lower depth of- poverty and insecurity. ; . The inhumanity of this proposal is enhanced by the fact that through stopping the subsidy, the Unemployment Board will have some £18,000 in Wellington, and the more men who are forced to accept the new cuts, the greater will be the amount saved by the board in direct payments to the unemployed. To reproduce the outworn pious hope that ; through increased leisure men will find additional work is to cloud the issue by utter nonsense. The very small amount of additional work that is available has no appreciable effect upon the vast majority of the unemployed, and there are too many instances -where such work has been paid for at the rate of 5s per day for able-bodied adult labour. To this type of employer the poverty of tho men on relief is a financial boon, and in proportion to the degree of intensified poverty the number of such employers will increase. To reducethe consuming power of relief workers any further, and particularly at this tiiiie when our producers are being compelled to sacrifice markets in Great Britain, is false economy- The Goveminent and the Unemployment Board, after four years' ineffective juggling with experimental schemes, is hopelessly'muddled, because' they do not know how to put first things first. It is elemental that the families of a nation: are the most important factors in the nation's life. They must have access to the means of providing.themselves with food, clothing, and _homes, in quality and quantity sufficient to maintain and secure humanjy decent existence. If this access is denied to one, or 70,000, then it is the grave duty of the Government to ensure the provision of life's necessities to them. Everything else pales into insignificance in comparison with this duty, because it is the sole -reason of a Government's existence.