MEN FOR RELIEF CAMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21029, 13 November 1931, Page 12

MEN FOR RELIEF CAMPS.

CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR. WORK OF THE BOOT POOL. REHABILITATION COMMITTEE. Very few of the unmarried men for whom country relief work with camp accommodation is being created, possessor! suitable footwear. They liarl walked themselves through their boots, which often were beyond repair. Fortunately the boot pool scheme was in operation, and so far it has equipped with boots over 450 men who otherwise could not have done navvying work. Since the inception of this highly practical scheme 4500 pairs of boots have been gathered, mended and issued. The need, however, is still pressing, and on behalf of the committee, Mr. ,T. E. Clossey, of the Farmers' Union, appeals for more boots that" can bo repaired. Blankets and working trousers are also needed to fit out the men for whom this country work is being (found. At present there are 10 bootmakers engaged in repairing work for the committee. They are paid unemployment wages by the Unemployment Board, but the materials have to be found by the committee, the cost being in the vicinity of £lO a week. Out of the original Boot Pool committee has grown a much wider organisation, which lias taken the title of the Central Rehabilitation Committee. It comprises representatives of the Farmers' Union, the Business Men's Belief Committee, the Returned Soldiers' Association, the Social Service Association and the Labour Department, and it is hoped to further enlarge it as time goes on. The first, action of its promoters was to attack the evil of overlapping in the dispensing of charity, and they are now assured of an approved system of checking. One of the committee's functions will be. to allocate gifts of produce, clothing, etc., which are sent to it. In the past most of the farmers' gift goods went to the five large bodies of the Social Service Association. There was complaint about this, particularly from some of the suburban relief organisations, which doubtless will now receive a share. In regard to boots there will bo an adequate check against fraud. Applications will have to be approved by a relief organisation as well as the Labour Department. , The committee is of opinion that the question of relief is bound up with that of rehabilitation and that no measures of community help can bo satisfactory unless closely co-ordinated with the reestablishment of men in satisfactory employment. In line with this idea the present purpose is to concentrate in helping th? single men to go to the emergency camps properly equipped, to provide literature and other evidences of community interest in them and in the end to aid them into steady work.

The repairing of largo numbers of boots means a considerable outlay on materials and it has been suggested that as the equipping of so many men has relieved the pressure on tho Hospital Board it should contribute toward the, cost. The scheme is practical and constructive in effect, merits which have not always been uniformly prominent in charitable activities of the. winter. The organisation is widely representative and with reasonable support from the city and province, has great potentialities.