RELIEF CAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 19

RELIEF CAMPS

REPLY TO MR. MCKEEN

In an address to relief workers yesterday, Mr. J. I. Goldsmith, Democrat candidate for Wellington South, replied to a statement made by Mr. H. McKeen, Labour candidate, that Mr. Goldsmith was one of those responsible for the establishment of the compulsory single men's camps.

"It should be unnecessary for me to inform a gentleman of Mr. McKeen's knowledge of public administration that I, as chairman of the Wellington Unemployment Committee, had absolutely no direct or indirect responsibility for- the establishment of the Unemployment Board's camp | scheme for single men," said Mr. Goldj smith. "The camp idea originated with the board and was brought into operation without prior consultation with the committee. One of my quarrels with the board was its deliberate ignoring of the committee, which claimed that in common fairness to the men who had to carry out the scheme they should have been advised of the proposal. lam not denying that the camp scheme had some initial advantages. There were, to my own personal knowledge, a considerable number of men sleeping out in parks and reserves, and more than one group of destitute men approached me with a request that I should arrange for camps to be established for their accommodation. "While the request was reasonable I was distinctly opposed to camps being set up unless standard wages could be paid, and said so.

"Mr. McKeen, in his complete ignorance, accuses me of direct responsibility for the creation of the camps. How much belter qualified he would have been to speak had he maintained contact with the committee. Such gross misstatements would then not have emanated from him today. Let us see whether Mr. McKeen is able to point to any single activity of his which in any way tended to ameliorate the conditions of the single men's camps. I know of none, and I claim to be best qualified to speak. "I challenge Mr. McKeen to state (a) whether he visited any relief works in Wellington; (b) any relief camps, stating which; (c) whether he attended any of the meetings which were held by the Unemployment Committee during the two years in which it was in existence; (d) whether he attempted to ascertain whether the unemployed men were properly fed, clothed, and housed, or under what conditions they were working. Although Messrs Semple, Fraser, Wright, and Nash were frequent visitors to relief works, camps, etc., and relief organisations^ during the whole of the two years of my service as chairman of the committee, only once did Mr. McKeen call at my office. He saw a- constant stream of men appealing to me for help, and he expressed surprise at the amount of time I was putting'in as chairman. . ,

'Mr. McKeen suggested that I should have assistance in addition i. to my daughter who was paid out of my own pocket to act as my secretary. Little did he know that we were controlling a staff of over 40 men at the bureau "I have not heard of Mr. McKeen's visiting any of the unemployed workers' homes, but if he did I would like him to state what steps he took to ameliorate the condition of the distressed."