RELIEF WORKER’S LOT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 249, 18 September 1933, Page 6

RELIEF WORKER’S LOT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As one who lias taken, more than a passing interest in the welfare of the local relief workers, I was somewhat amused and not a little disgusted to hear that a deputation representing a very small section of the relief workers waited upon the Central Itelief Committee with a demand that rations be supplied without work. Ye Gods and little fishes, what next! If these misguided ones intended it as a joke it was ill-timed and in very bad taste- — more especially at a time when the citizens of Palmerston North are doing, their very best, through the Mayor, to make the lot of the local relief workers as easy as the position warrants, and I am pleased to note that the committee turned them down hat. Now, sir, the Government’s No. 5 scheme is, to my way of thinking, the best insurance policy the workers ever had inasmuch as the man who is discharged from private employment is insured against idleness—he immediately becomes a relief worker with permanent employment and, however lazy or incapable, his employer cannot dismiss him. Under these circumstances he is relieved of all worry and anxiety of finding work. I contend that the relief worker was never better off than lie is to-day—the decent and sensible ones realise this and leave well alone—in which case they show more than the average intelligence usually attributed to them.

If these thankless and irresponsible ones require proof of this, they have it in the sparsely attended meetings convened bv their organisations. In conclusion, let us analyse the relief worker’s financial position : His weekly remuneration averages 26s 3d for only two or three days each alternate week. The amount of work done is in the main negligible. He gets roughly 16s worth of rations per month for one day of bis leisure time. He isallowed to work off bis electric light, gas and rates. He gets a pair of boots well worth a pound for only one day’s work, and on top of this serviceable clothing at the depot. His rent is reduced to a minimum and his firewood to 9d per bag, and to top this off, a free pass to football matches. All things considered, he is better off than 1 am—the wives of quite a number of relief workers are better dressed than mine and they can afford to patronise the places of amusement more than I can. In many cases they are assisted by their parents and relatives, more especially during the holiday season when a short vacation is desirable. Taking the position as I see it, the relief worker is quite satisfied with his lot and rightly so, and my advice to him is to stand solid and have nothing to do with this dissatisfied element whose endeavour it is to distort the position into something that it is not.—l am, etc., CITIZEN.