RELIEF BENEFITS.

Evening Star, Issue 21076, 13 April 1932, Page 9

RELIEF BENEFITS.

TO TUB EDITOR. Sir, —I desire to refute the statement made by our mayor to the Government the other day that “ there was no one on the verge of starvation.” _ I, with several other men, with families ranging in number from five to eight, were standing down last week, and received from the depot on Wednesday a ration of food supplies. On Friday a few of us called at the office in Dowling street and requested an order for a further supply, as that which we had received in the form of bread, butter, and sugar had been exhausted—also meat. On being informed of the quantity which each of us was entitled to receive, we discovered that we had only got half of it, but, to our amazement, the gentleman told us he could not give us a chit, as they did not have the goods in the depot. We were in a, quandary, as there was no money coming to us till near the end of this week. In making the statement he did, Mr Black _ has made a very wild guess. My position (only one) on Saturday morning was this: After my children had had a picking in the morning, there were two slices of bread and enough butter to cover them left. I could mutilate and chop to pieces the list of groceries given in your paper by the but it only makes my blood boil to think that a man in his position would suggest that that list of necessaries was what we were receiving.—l am, etc., J. Spence, April 13.

TO THS EDITOR. Sir,—An official statement in tonight’s ‘ Star ’ says that with the Hospital Board’s orders we could buy less than we get at the relief depot. I used to receive an order for 17s Gd. From St. Andrew street depot I receive the following goods (a No. 3 parcel);— Butter, 2s B£d; tea, Is Gd; sugar, Is 3d; flour, Is; rice, 7Jd; meat, Is 9d; syrup and jam, Is; vegetables, Is 6d; bread, 2s 8d; total, 14s. The fruit, barley, etc., not knowing that they were to be had for the asking, my wife and five children have had to do without. I have only on one occasion had more than two loaves (I got two and a-half). From the above you will see that the orders enabled my wife to purchase an extra 3s Gd worth of groceries, and men that had their own vegetables growing saved another Is Gd, or a total of 5s worth more of groceries than we get from St. Andrew street, and did not have to stand lined up in view of the public to get them. -I am, etc., H 0 T April 13.