ABUSE OF DOLE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11494, 23 November 1931, Page 3

ABUSE OF DOLE

MAN “FED UP” WITH JOB. MOTOR CAR AND DOGS. Ouo of the strangest cases of the abuse of the dole in England has come to light in a Hampshire village, near Fareham. A young man is drawing the dole and at the same time he owns a motor car. Tie lives in a pleasant semi-detached house and he. devotes his “leisure” hours to training greyhounds. When a correspondent of a London newspaper called on ihis man recently he found that, so far from being ashamed of himself, lie made no secret of his record. He showed no reluctance in relating• h-is-'-story, assuring the visitor at the "same time that his was quite an ordinary record, and that many other unemployed had a better time than he.

“For six years I was employed at and oil finery,” the young man said, “where I was receiving about 15s a week. I was fed up with it; I found the hours too long, and other men were being paid higher wages to do more p’casant work. Who would not prefer to go on the dole rather than put up with that state of affairs? My wife usually works as a waitress, in the summer, and draws the dole for the rest of the year.”

Whatever may he the hardships ol the dole, their .only effect on this individual has been to make him blase. He dismissed bis car with a contemptuous too of the head. “Oh, that is nothing,’’ he said; “it is only a saloon.” His-stud of greyhounds arc not valued more highly. “Why should not I keep greyhounds if I want to?” he said. “Besides, their keep is not very expensive.” In one corner of his' sitting-room stands an elaborate cabinet wireless set; but such simple pleasures as listening-in have long lost all their novelty for this young man. Although t-hjis state of affairs seems to satisfy the greyhound trainer, it is n source of considerable bitterness in his neighbourhood. A feature of this year’s hop-pick-ing in England has been the difficulty in getting pickers from London. A grower who booked 400 pickers and only obtained two-thirds of that number, said that pickers stayed in London to- sign for the “dole” while work in plenty was available in Kent.