£5,000 WANTED.

Evening Star, Issue 21881, 19 November 1934, Page 8

£5,000 WANTED.

The appeal which the deputy-mayor, acting with the Mayor’s Relief Organisation, makes to-day for an auxiliary relief fund in connection with unemployment cannot fairly provoke the question “ What, again? It was in June of last year that ah appeal was made by a committee set up for the purpose for £IO,OOO, ” to supplement the meagre earnings of men engaged on relief works and others of our people who are suffering undue hardship as the result of the depression.” The understanding was that if this amount were subscribed there would be no further appeal made for twelve months. The amount was obtained—£s,ooo, roughly speaking, by direct subscriptions and £5,000 from a queen carnival. Most of it came to hand in August and September of last year, *o that, allowing for that time lag, with some windfalls received from art unions and other sources, it has lasted well ovci the twelve months. There has been no extravagance shown towards the unemployed. The effect of the fund, supplementing Government provision in special cases, has been some might saj it has hardly been —what we envisaged for it when it was raised —that of making life, for the hardest pressed section, “ just reasonably endurable,, and giving it room for .hope.” The fund, in other words, has been well husbanded, but it has not been self-renewing, like the widow’s cruse. Inevitably the time has come when a new appeal has to be issued. Happily it is being made in more cheerful conditions than, that of seventeen months ago. The number of those who need help is smaller than it then was. Some men have gone into Public Works camps, and are earning 'more than the No, 5 scheme gave them. Others are in State-subsidised employments. Yet others have found private jobs, or jobs have been found by their children, lessening the strain on the home’s finances. The total of those registered by the Unemployment Board as a charge on its funds in one way or another at the end of October was 59,327, as compared with 76,246 a year before. Despite decreased taxation the board, to a most unusual extent, is in funds, and the hope has been held out officially that a little more may be done soon for the most meagrely helped of its beneficiaries, who have received aid from it in the past barely sufficient to keep them alive. It is still a laigc number, however, who come under the central schemes, and the board’s promises of concessions have usually been made, in the past, long before it has been ready to fulfil them. Dunedin, perhaps, has been emerging from the morass a little faster than some northern cities, and it is hoped that, whereas £IO,OOO was estimated to be required before to supplement central official relief of distress for a year, £5,000 will suffice for the year to come. But that does not mean that those who gave before will be free to reduce their giving by half on this occasion. Only £5,000 is being asked for, in place of £IO,OOO which was obtained last year, but £5,000 which was received then from the queen carnival will not this time be available. The need for direct subscriptions, therefore, remains the same as it was. That a good start has been already made will be seen from the subscriptions which we acknowledge today. The fund will be used, as it has been in the past, “ in subsidising the purchase of fuel and clothing, together with contributions of food supplies in cases of sickness or other special circumstances.” It is a cause which, especially at this time when Christmas is approaching, should appeal to all who have,the means to give.