HELPING THE WORKLESS

Evening Star, Issue 20585, 10 September 1930, Page 8

HELPING THE WORKLESS

COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS TO THE FORE BIG GASH AND CLOTHES DRIVE CITIZENS URGED TO PREPARE PARCELS. At a desk in the committee room of the Commercial Travellers’ Club m Bond street sits an organiser—a generalissimo for the time being—who is planning with military precision and thoroughness the big cash and clothes drive which is to be carried out on Saturday morning by members of the Dunedin Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen’s Association. On the wall before him is a comprehensive map of the city and its suburbs. The whole area has been divided. up into _ twenty-five sections, each section having been made to stand out clearly by reason of a judicious application of an artist’s < paint brush. Printed across each district is the name of the charitable knight of the road, or rather, area captain, who will be in charge of that particular sector when the energetic army goes over the top at 8 a.m. on Saturday. But perhaps the martial note which seems to have crept into this account of a generous effort is inappropriate. It is well known that the commercial travellers are on a crusade of peace, a crusade which they hope will be the means of alleviating the poverty and distress that is, still all too prevalent m many Dunedin homes. _ In a cause so vitally good as this it Ts confidently expected that the people of Dunedin will surrender without demur all articles of clothing, food, etc., which can be spared from their households. To point out that the ravages of unemployment are worse this year than ever before seems superfluous, as seems also the trite remark that the country has not yet turned the corner and entered a more prosperous period. Offi cials at the Mayor’s Relief Depot will affirm that 368 families are at present being assisted from that quarter alone, and that new cases are coming m every day. ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN.

To return to Saturday s . Bag Day, however: Each area captain will have several lieutenants under him, and there will also be the very useful assistance provided by 250 Boy Scouts. Every block is to have a dump of its own, to which the goods collected in that special district will be carried. Then, with the aid of a fleet of about twenty lorries, kindly lent by many business firms, these goods will be transported from the block dumps to the main depot—one of the large new sheds, obligingly placed at the disposal of the travellers by the Otago Harbour Board. In due course the goods so collected will, be distributed among various charities. . , AH the dumps in the areas throughout the city and suburbs are to be connected by telephone with , one another and also with the main depot. Therefore, when one of the captains has finished his block he will be able to phone his nearest block captain and, if necessary, give him extra assistance. It is calculated that in Dunedin there are from 16,000 to 18,000 houses, and in this way it is hoped that every house will be paid a visit between 8 o clock and noon.

NOBODY TO BE MISSED. In order that the work of collecting should be made as easy as possible it would be as well for people to decide during the next two days" what they can afford to give, and, in anticipation of the call that is practically certain, have the goods tied up in a parcel ready to lie sent away.. Clothing, articles of food, cash, anything that will help somebody in need of help, will be welcome. . . If some folk do not wish to be disturbed it would be possible, for .them to leave their contribution just inside their gates, or even on the pavements. If by some obscure chance a householder is missed altogether he or she must not regard it as too .late to send in a parcel, because, contributions that are posted to or delivered at the Commercial Travellers’ Club, Bond street, will be acceptable. . For some time past drives of a similar nature have been carried. but with great success by commercial travellers’ clubs in other centres. At a recent cash and clothes drive, conducted at Auckland, over 400 tons of goods were collected in one day. What an asset such a goodly pile must have been to the social 'workers of the city I