UNEMPLOYMENT EFFECTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21606, 26 September 1933, Page 11

UNEMPLOYMENT EFFECTS

INCIDENCE OF SICKNESS DEPUTATION'S ASSERTIONS REPLY BY HON. J. A. YOUNG [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Monday Several cases of distress and sickness arising out of unemployment were brought before the notice of tho Minister of Health, the Hon. J. A. Young, by a deputation representing relief workers and their wives to-day. One of tho speakers, Mrs. Collins, said the resistance of some people to disease was being lowered through the unbalanced rations they were obliged to eat through lack of money. These people, she said, had no means of securing medical aid when ill and no means of buying the right kind of food when well. Mrs. Collins advocated tha appointment of a doctor and the establishment of a dental clinic for the service of the poor. She said tho children of poor parents were being denied a secondary education through their inability to buy books and stationery. Specific cases of poverty and sickness were brought before the Minister by the members of the deputation. In reply, Mr. Young said careful statistics had been compiled, and these showed that there was less sickness in the community at present than there was in normal times. His advisers had stated that there was no evidence of undue deterioration in the health of tho people as the result of distress. There was evidence of want of the proper us<? of tho meagre facilities available to them. The trouble with young children arose from incorrect diet rather than from insufficient food. Mr. Young said the relief rates of pay were nevej: intended to supply a full budget of the wants of the people It was reasonable to expect that tha social services of tho community should do something to supplement tho efforts made by the Government. The Government, he thought, was doing a great work, and that work must be measured by comparisons with similar efforts made in other countries. There was no country in the world where the unemployment problem had been tackled more efficiently than it had been in New Zealand. There was a limit to the country's resources as far as dental services were concerned, said the Minister, and much was being done for the children in this direction. Women were being helped out of tho unemployment funds through the social organisations in the cities, such as the Y.W.C.A. Mr. Young said he would bring the representations of the deputation before other Ministers concerned, and would give the members a considered reply. WORKERS ON WAIHEKE

FAMILIES LIVING AT OSTEND Four relief workers and their families have recently taken up residence in seaside baches at Ostend, Waiheke, where they are employed by the Ostend Road Board under No. 5 scheme. Each man has two or more children of school age, and the families are able to live cheaply on account of the moderate rents at which small houses are obtainable. The men, who are employed for the regulation number of days each week, will remain permanently on the island, and it is likely that six or more other relief workers and their families will shortly remove to Waiheke from the city. The men at present there are engaged in grubbing gorse. The addition to the island's population has resulted in an announcement of the reopening of a store and a hall that have been closed for the past two years.

COMPLAINT AT WHITIANOA MISUSE OF LABOUR ALLE6ED [by telegraph OWN correspondent] WHITIANGA, Monday A deputation of married relief workers at Whitianga waited on the chairman of the Coromandel County Council, Mr. N. A. Wells, on Saturday evening objecting to working on the Mercury Bay Bowling Club's green, submitting that it was a misuse o£ relief labour. Mr. Wells stated the men must work as instructed or no other work would bo available. The men urge an inquiry, as the chairman's action is considered unconstitutional. The following telegram has been despatched by the relief workers to the Minister of Employment:—" The chairman of the Coromandel County Council lias dismissed six local married relief workers for refusing to work on tho Mercury Bay Bowling Club's property in excavating and levelling the croquet lawn. We humbly request that instructions be given the local authority to reinstate the men immediately on other work pending an inquiry." KEEN DEMAND FOB BOOTS THAMES AND COROMANDEL [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] THAMES, Monday A total of 565 pairs of working boots has been issued by the certifying officer for Thames, Mr. S. Smith, to relief workers in the district since the commencement of the issue by the Unemployment Board in June. In Thames 431 pairs have been issued, in Coromandel 80, in Whitianga 31 and in camps on the Hauraki * Plains 23. Applications for boots are still coming in steadily.