SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 243, 11 September 1935, Page 6

SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

“UNJUST AND UNCHRISTIAN.” PROTEST AT AUCKLAND. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Sept. 10. A meeting organised by a group of clergy representing principally the Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths, and described as “a united protest against unjust and unchristian social conditions,” was held in the Town Hall; it was attended by about 2000 people. The Primate (Archbishop Averill) said: “The question of unemployment needs facing from a different point of view. At present wo are only trying to patch what has gone too far to be patched, and what I think is too serious for any kind of patching. It is a new system which is needed in order to meet the needs of the new age. I maintain that every man capable of work should work, and has the right to live and to work, and is entitled also to a fair and just proportion of the fruits of his labours.”

Resolutions were carried drawing attention to “chronic poverty and distress,” affirming that the Government’s methods had been a temporisation instead of a solution, and urging an immediate constructive programme to deal with the situation. The meeting carried a further resolution expressing indignation at the treatment of returned soldiers regarding sustenance and pensions, and calling on the Government to honour its pledges to the men who enlisted. A third resolution called for a noconfidence rejection of the Government at the coming election on the ground of political ineptitude.