THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, JUNE, 19, 1933. THE RELIEF OF DISTRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21983, 19 June 1933, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, JUNE, 19, 1933. THE RELIEF OF DISTRESS

No person of normal sensibility can have read, unmoved, the appeal which the Mayor has issued for help in the relief of distress in the city. Particularly should the appeal touch those whose good fortune it is that their circumstances have been so inconsiderably worsened by the economic crisis that they are enabled to live in complete comfort. Very many of them, it is true, have been rendering assistance in no small degree to families that have been severely buffeted in the struggle against adversity. But the appeal which the Mayor make's is one that, if it is to meet with an adequate response, requires a co-ordination of effort on the part of all citizens who are in a position to furnish succour to those in need of it. The Mayor has, with a few deft strokes, drawn an exceedingly gloomy picture of the distress that exists. We could wish that it was,an over-drawn picture, but when we are informed that representatives of half a dozen social and relief organisations have emphasised the need for the institution of immediate steps to relieve the situation we are forbidden to, believe that there is not urgent cause for the appeal which is being made to the public'. It may s be possible to treat as extravagant the representations that are made from some quarters concerning the prevalence of distress, but the social organisations are so closely in touch with the needy and are so intimately connected with the relief of distress that their assurance that actual want is being experienced cannot be disregarded. Nor should there be any lack of readiness on the part of the community to provide the means whereby relief may be promptly afforded to those who are in need of it. The Mayor's statement that " thousands of children are insufficiently nourished, to say nothing of men and women" is one that must cause an uneasy sensation and a painful feeling in the minds of the public. For, in a country like this, which produces food in abundance and in which a great deal of food is wasted, no person should go hungry. There are sapient people in our midst who will say that a condition under which any family may lack the necessaries of life in a country with the resources of New Zealand is due to the existence of a faulty social system, and who will seize the occasion of the Mayor's appeal to tell us that. This issue is not one for present argument. The question of the hour is the need of organising a movement by which the reproach may be removed from this city that large numbers of its inhabitants are living in a state of destitution. Of the possibility of affording the relief that is immediately necessary there can be no doubt. What is required is that there shall be an effective mobilisation of help that will embrace the whole of Dunedin. There are committees in different parts of the city that are conducting relief measures in their own districts as efficiently as the means at their disposal will permit. It cannot be pretended, however, that their activities reach all the cases of distress that require attention, and the aim of the organisations through which such moneys as may be subscribed as a result of the Mayor's appeal must be to secure that assistance shall be tendered wherever the need of it legitimately exists. The community may confidently be relied upon to furnish the funds that are required. We hope that there will be a representative attendance at the meeting convened by the Mayor for this afternoon to launch a movement directed to the purpose of affording relief from the distress which he has described.