MONEY TO BUY FOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21164, 22 April 1932, Page 10

MONEY TO BUY FOOD.

UNEMPLOYED AT HUNTLY.

HOSPITAL BOARD'S GRANT. RELIEF WORK STRIKE RESULT. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON. Thursday. The serious position in which many women and children at Iluntly are placed as the result of the unemployed workers' strike was placed before the Waikato Hospital Board to-day by Mr. G. Smith, of Huntly. There were 250 men who would not accept relief work at Huntly, said Mr. Smith, and these people had come to the end of their financial resources last week. They appealed to tho business men of the town for assistance, and asked for £IOO. Tho business people agreed, in order to preserve peace, to give food to the. value of £SO.

The unemployed expressed dissatisfaction, and, as a result, one business man gave £SO. There was a large meeting of the unemployed yesterday, and they wanted to wait on the board. The speaker said he persuaded them to permit him to place their representations before the board. This was agreed to, and a resolution was passed asking tho board to grant the unemployed £BS with which to buy food.

Mr. Smith said the Government had not handled tho position at Huntly at all well. Ho was certain that had a little diplomacy bee]) exercised by the Government officials there would have been no strike. T' lo Government officials had blundered and were largely to blame for the present trouble. The chairman, Mr. J. J. Ryburn, described the position as extraordinary. The men had refused tho work offered them, and sorno of them had deliberately put obstacles in the way of those who desired to work.

Mr. H. W. Wilson said tho women and children must be fed.

The board decided to grant food orders to the value of £BS to relieve distress at Huntly, and to intimate that it could not grant any further help. The board appealed to the men to accept any work offering.

Tho complaints made by Mr. Smith were referred to Mr. F. Wilson, officer in charge of the Labour Department in Hamilton. Mr. Wilson said: "I have no comments to make. There are always two sides to every question."