QUITE INADEQUATE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1934, Page 9

QUITE INADEQUATE

A PEOTEST MEETING

SUPPORT FOR MR. SULLIVAN

A meeting of ' relief workers and others in the Town Hall last night voicod a strong protest -agaiust the prosent relief and sustenance rates, and gave its support also to the proposals embodied in tho Bill introduced in tho Houso by Mr. Sullivan. Tho hall was about half-filled.

The chairman (Mr. P. Eraser, M.P.) said that the object of the meeting was to protest most vigorously against the present treatment of tho unemployed, particularly in the rates of sustenance, and, in doing that, ho believed, tho meeting would be expressing the opinion of th"c overwhelming maiority of tho citizens of Wellington. The meeting would be asked to express its support to the Bill at tho moment being placed before Parliament by Mr. Sullivan. The aim of that Bill wag to put in operation the original sustenance provisions of the Act which Parliament had passed and which Parliament intended should be paid. Though tho Labour Party had always stood for fulltime employment at full rates of pay it did consider that tho sustenance rates originally proposed by the Act—though still far from adequate—were vastly better than the rates now in force. If $ie meeting gave support to the profttak ajjainisfc thfl rates and support for

Mr. Sullivan's Bill, it would, ho was convinced, have the backing of the whole city, for ho could not imagine anyone, capablo uf straight and decent thinking, believing that the unemployed were being properly provided for. NECESSARIES OF LIFE. Mr. It. H. Webb said that tho present policy of tho Government and tho Unemployment Board did not enable the unemployed to obtain the necessaries of life. The only logical conclusion one could come to in examining tho question of unemploympnt was that the present social system was one of production for profit, not for use. Mr. Sullivan's Bill called for tho support of all tho unemployed throughout the Dominion. Tho protest was not directly against cither relief rates or sustenance rates, but against the present policy of unemployment relief which made it impossible to achieve- a reasonable 'standard of living. They were told that the Unemployment 'Board would no longer make the usual grants to tho Wellington City Council in connection with tho No. 5 sehomo, and tho result would be that tho majority of unemployed in tho city would be penalised through boing forced on to sustenance Tho time was overdue when the unemployed should protest against such impositions as the granting of £17,000 to a prosperous insuranco company in connection with the erection of a new building in Wellington. Mr. A. Sergent said that the whole question could be summed up by the affirmation that the unemployed could not live decently on tho present relief rates, lot alone the sustenance rates now operating. Organised protests were the most effective means of alleviating tho position and of having the sustenance rates raised to a reasonable level. It was claimed that the country's economic position mado it impossiblo to improve tho lot of tho relief worker, but one had only to remember how quickly money was raised in time- of war to realise" the fallacy of that argument. END THE No. 5 SCHEME. Mr. Sullivan said that ho was somewhat disappointed that the meeting was not larger, but admittedly the time for the calling, of tho meeting had. been short. Until the No. 5 scheme and tho various subsidy schemes were got rid of it would bo impossiblo to ascertain how many men were out of employment. When tho No. 8 and' other schemes were abolished, local bodies and employers of all sorts would have to pay standard rates of pay and he believed that the engagement of men in that way would make it possible to pay tho romainder sustenance as proposed in his Bill, or at least the rates set out in the original Act. The position that had been obtaining in New Zealand under the administration of the Unemployment Board was monstrous, said Mr. Sullivan. Probably no one in the Dominion .had a more intimate knowledge of the true position • than he had'in his capacity as Mayor of Christchurch. Ho had gone into tho homes of tho relief workors and had seen tho almost intolerable conditions under which they lived and which robbed them of practically everything that mado life worth while. The Government and the Unemployment Board and many others did not realise that tho hardships which he and the .other Labour morebers in Parliament were seeking to havo remedied actually existed, and that the protests made by the unemployed were not exaggerated but arose out of real misery and suffering. RESOLUTION OF PROTEST. Mr. C. M. Brooks spoke of tho impossiblo conditions under which thousands of men and their wives and families were living today, and he moved the following resolution:— That this representative mooting of citizens •of Wellington, realising that it is utterly impossible for the unemployed to adequately feed, '•■ clothe, and shelter their families and themselves on tho present relief and sustcnauco rates, is of the opinion that where tho unemployed . cannot bo provided with full-time employment at standard rates of pay, then sustenance' as outlined in tho Bill introduced by Mr. Sullivan should be paid. .Mr. R. Semplc, M.P., dealt particularly with tho effect of the new sustenance rates in Wellington City, much on tho lines of speeches at meetings of tho City Council. As a result of the.action of the Unemployment Board in not making available this year the special grant of £17,000 the council had beon faced with tho necessity of throwing all men on relief work out of oven that work and on to sustenance. A deputation consisting of the Mayor, Councillor T. Forsyth, and himself had waited upon, the new Minister of Employment (the Hon. J. A. Young), who admitted that he knew nothing of the problem, but was given a lead by Mr. Bromley, which ho certainly followed. All that tho Minister would concede was a grant of £5000, which tho City Council would not accept The council proposed to wait upon tho Minister again, but he rather feared that tho result would bo about the same. To ask a man with seven children to work four days for Is 6d per week was ludicrous, and yet if the proposal mado by the Mayor of Wellington that the mon should be asked whether they would voluntarily go on to sustenance was carried out, its acceptance by tho men would surely bo used by the Prime Minister as an argument that tho men were quite satisfied —that they preforred sustenance. MR. SEMPLE'S FORECAST. "And while the Governmont is telling the' people of New Zealand and the relief, workers that it has no money, at the vory moment it publishes ill tho Gazette that thero is to tho credit of the Unemployment Board £1,300,000 in cash—in cash," said Mr. Semple, "and I will tell you what they intend to do about it. They have extended the life of Parliament by a year. That year will soon pass. They have to do something to impress tho great British public, and they have a plan—to got tho rcliof workers ,to agree voluntarily to go on to sustenance, to starve more than they are starving now. That will pay the Unemployment Board handsomoly, for in six months' time they will havo a balanco of £2,000,000 in cash, and they will drop the unemployment tax to half, and thousands of people in New Zealand will cry 'Hallelujah!' They will reduce the tax by employing a balanco obtained at the expense of the misery, tears, and degradation of mon, women, and childron, out of work through no fault of their own." Mr. Semplo bittorly attackod the subsidy system, and said that in plaeo of endeavouring to better the lot of workers and unemployed alike, tho Government was busy with renressivo legislation, such as tho> Harbours Amendment Bill and the Police Offences Bill, which, if passed, would take away tho last vesticres of public liberty. Tho resolution moved by Mr. Brooks was carried unanimously.