THE SHOE PINCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 8

THE SHOE PINCHES.

DISTRESS AFTER STRIKE. WIVES SEEK ASSISTANCE.' MANY APPLICATIONS FOR RELIEF. THERE seems to be little doubt that the imprint left by the strike upon the financial resources of many Auckland families | has not yet disappeared, and that in view of the approach of winter, the effect of straitened circumstances will be felt more or less acutely for some time to come. Inquiries made at ' several benevolent institutions, public and semi-private, go to show that a marked increase in the number of applications for aid has taken place within the last month or two. Many women have sought aid in securing work, because their husbands have lost thenoccupation, and have not been able to earn sufficient to maintain their families. Others have had to be provided with sums of money from time to time. The increase in the charitable aid applied for was not perceptible immediately j after the strike. Apparently poor families j waited until they had reached " the last ' ditch" before applying for public aid. Almost daily wives of former strikers tell the relieving officer at the Charitable Aid Office of their troubles, and of the inability of their husbands to get work. Many of them are really innocent victims. Some of the men themselves have called at the office and have spoken plainly of the iniquity of their being forced out of work when they bad no desire to go, and have expressed themselves very strongly that they could now see that the whole trouble was the work of a few agitators. Some of the worst sufferers, stated Mr. Jones, the relieving officer, were those who were really victims. The distress is not always apparent in the appearance of the people, because they can still dress decently with the clothing they had previous to the strike, but none the less the shoe is pinching, and in some cases, pinching sorely.