DISTRESS IN NORTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19416, 26 August 1926, Page 10

DISTRESS IN NORTH.

; BURDENS OF STOREKEEPERS.

HEAVY DEBTS ON BOOKS.

INDICATIONS OF DEPRESSION

AN EXODUS OF SINGLE MEN.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— SPECIAL - REPORTER.] HOUHORA, Wednesday.

"It is not charity we want, but an adequate price for our gum." This is the cry of hundreds of people who are facing hard times in the North. Most of the gumdiggers are only selling sufficient to keep themselves and their families in food, and if it were not for the credit advanced by the storekeepers many of them would have starved long ago. A family of ten Maoris, including three adults, at Waihapo, have earned since Christmas an average of £8 a month, the whole of which has been spent in purchasing food. An account of £65 with the local storekeeper remains unpaid. The father had three weeks' relief work on the road at 14s a day. Four blankets between the ten of them is not sufficient in cold weather. From £5 to £6 a month from the sales of gum seems to be an average income for a family.

A noticeable feature of the Maori dwell-: ings is their cleanliness, a contrast to those of some of the Europeans. Nevertheless, most of their tin sheds leak badly, in wet weather owing to the fact that they are made of used corrugated iron sheets riddled with nail holes.

Attitude ol Schoolmasters. , Several of the schoolmasters in' the Northern townships consider the reports of ' poverty exaggerated and are much averse to distributing charity, on the grounds that it demoralises the Maoris. The latter, they.say, are accustomed to, living under the present conditions, and cannot starve while they can fish. Most" of the storekeepers, on the other hand, are favourable to the distribution of clothing, while most of the families, when asked if they wish gifts, point to the poverty of their rooms, and bare their chests to show how little they have on. A great many of the people are heavily in debt to the storekeepers, and will find no relief until gum prices improve, if they ever do. Accounts of £3O, £4O and £SO are in many places outstanding, and when the men get two or three weeks' relief work their earnings are only sufficient to pay for present needs. In many cases credit is stopped at an early stage, but where a man's earning power is not impaired , his credit account may stand as high as £75. While the price of food and clothing is much higher than in Auckland it is true that rents are negligible, sometimes five shillings a week, sometimes nothing at all, but then the accommodation is of the poorest. The storekeepers point out that freights by sea are heavy, averaging £2 do £3 a. ton by space measurement and the goods have'often to be carted many miles to the stores.

Very Pew Cash Sales. The* position ■ the storekeepers find themselves in' is; an indication of the depression that has overtaken this region. Those who deal in cash sales do very little, business. Some of them are giving credit to the extent ■of -hundreds of pounds, "carrying the people -on their backs," as they put it. One of them produced his books' today. .They showed while .£IOO was owing- on outstanding, accounts two years ago the amount of credit on his books is no less than £756. It is stated that when a storekeeper closed down his business at Te Hapua a few months ago he went away leaving £SOO of uncollected debts due to him in the district.

Thirty single men have left thp Wai-hapo-district for the south in the past three months and the exodus has not been confined to Waihapo. Hardly any single men are left on' the peninsula. Their departure was probably taken on -the ad-: vice of the Minister of Lands 1 who; advised them to . abandon "the sinking, ship" last Christmas. The married men are prevented by reason of > their- responsibilities from following their' example:. Seven and eight children, which is the typical Maori family, keep the,gumdiggers tied to the locality and even if families decided to migrate to the southern centres and risk unemployment they could, not find' enough money to transportthemselves. ■ .&•

Owing to the depression the weekly picture shows in Tekao and Waihapo have beei|-discontinued and no >,dances T have been held in Houhora this; winter*. ■