UNEMPLOYMENT 'ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20721, 14 November 1930, Page 13

UNEMPLOYMENT 'ACT.

A DIFFICULT FEATURE. CASE OF THE SOCIAL " PEST." DANGER TO GIVE HIM MONEY. J<pars that the Unemployment, Art, unless administered on sound lines, may tend to safeguard tho "professional" typo of vagrant whose operations aro now restricted by tho police are held by city social workers. It is pointed out that <ho granting of money indiscriminately to applicants would deprive tho police of the wide powers given by the Police Offences Act in relation to persons without lawful means of support. One of the main nuisances with which the social worker has to contend is the typo of person whose claim for support rests only on a hearty desire to avoid work. These persons constantly hamper tho good work done for cases of necessity and at times bring the charitable work into disrepute. Social workers cannot deal with them and tho police hold the only means of disciplining them and weeding them out from the rest of tho community. Under the Police Offences Act, 1927, "where any constable has reasonable cause to believe that any person has no lawful means of support or has insufficient lawful means of support, he may arrest such person, either with or without warrant, and bring him before any justice." Failing <o prove that he has lawful means of support, the person is deemed to be an idle and disorderly person and is liable to a term of imprisonment.- The person charged may claim possession of money or property, but has to show that this was honestly come by. In practice, this section of the Act has worked admirably and has been the meanr. by which the polico have "put away" undesirable persons, who, previously, would have escaped the law. One of the pitfalls of any system which provided money for such men would be that they would thus become possessed of lawful means of support, it was stated. Even if a man received only 21s a week, he would have command of a living wage —sufficient means of support-. This fact would place him beyond the reach of the police and it could be reasonably assumed that many persons would take advantage of the position. Under such conditions, social workers are concerned as to the working of the Act and the arrangements made by the Unemployment Board. "There can be nu cause for complaint if work only is given to the unemployed and the Act is administered on principle of 'no work, no pay'," an of a social organisation said yesterday. "However, there is trouble in store if money is given to some of tho men hanging about the city." DOMINION REGISTRATIONS, TOTAL OF 440,000 TO DATE. [BY TELEGEAPH. —OWN COFBESPONPE.NT. J "WELLINGTON, Thursday. Applications for registration under the Unemployment Act have practically ceased, and it is estimated by the Post Office authorities that a, total of 440,000 persons had registered throughout the Dominion up to this evening. On Tuesday evening, when the time for registration nominally expired, the applications received numbered 420.000, but the 20,000 registrations that came to hand after thatwer% not all necessarily made after the due date. It, is considered that comparatively few applications remain outstanding.