WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22179, 5 August 1935, Page 12

WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED

Sir,—The article in Friday's issue under the heading. " Sustenance as Pay" is hardly fair either to the Government or to those who through force of circumstances are compelled to accept sustenance payments as a form of relief. Ninety per cent of the men who have to "parade their poverty" publicly would rather that they performed some necessary work than accept the money for nothing. Until recently I was employed by a prosperous local establishment for just on two years at £i 14s per week until compelled to leave on recount of ill-health. I know of other young men who work for even less and who. like myself, would rather do so than become a charge on the Unemployment Board. I think you would find most of the men on sustenance in a similar frame of mind. It is all very well to write of the unemployed men being compelled to act on their own initiative bj- looking for work instead of receiving sustenance. But jobs are scarce and consequently no matter how much initiative one may possess it avails one little in his search for employment. There is enough useful work requiring to be done in Auckland that there should be no men on sustenance. Some of our roads and footpaths are a positive disgrace in a city that is styled '"the Queen City" of the Dominion. Hundreds of houses, shops and factories are badly in need of repair and repainting; even our sports grounds are badly in need of adequate drainage facilities. There is plenty of work to be done, everywhere, and the cost in money should not be allowed to prevent works being put into operation. They are necessary and will have to be done ultimately. Why not do them now ? Frank C. Reardon.