THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 1933. AN APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21993, 30 June 1933, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 1933. AN APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC

The effort to raise £IO,OOO by public subscription for the relief of distress, to which the recent meeting of citizens at the Town Hall committed itself, was not embarked upon without due consideration of all the circumstances. The strong and representative committee which was set up to further this undertaking will recognise that the time is not particularly opportune for asking the public to subscribe money to even the worthiest of causes. But there is one cause which must stand always on an exceptional footing, and that is the cause of the genuinely needy in our midst. Unemployment and poverty will continue to keep company till better times come again, as they may do very shortly, but where the hungry exist they must be fed. The appeal now launched has, therefore, the strongest justification possible in that it is made under the spur of considerations of which everybody must acknowledge the force. It is made under the dictates of humanity, and it can be confidently anticipated that the immediate response to it which is now invited will be made in the same spirit of recognition that in no circumstances can actual distress, due to a lack of the necessaries of existence, be permitted to obtain among families resident in this community. It has been frequently observed that there is nothing like personal deprivation and suffering to create sympathy and a fellow-feeling for the plight of others. Therefore, if the community as a whole has been hit by the hard times, its realisation has also been quickened as to the meaning of actual want in respect of such requirements as food, clothing, and fuel. In a word, the results of the depression, so visible in the existence of unemployment, have invited in a persistent way consideration of the personal obligation to help those whose circumstances are peculiarly unfortunate. The people of the Dominion are already contributing as much as four millions a year from their earnings and incomes for the relief of unemployment. But if this is _ inadequate to meet the case —and it is apparent that it does not serve to prevent the existence of a considerable amount of acute distress —then there is a call which cannot be denied for its augmentation by private effort when such need has revealed itself in this or any other centre. In respect of the monetary contributions which it makes to meet the cost of unemployment the tax-paying public discharges a duty which it could not evade if it would. But so far as the public admits a further obligation—and that it does so is, of course, manifest in the extent to which invaluable work is being carried on by relief organisations —it lays tribute upon its own good-hearted-ness and generosity. The existence of distress in this city, beyond what can be coped with through the means already available, being established, a peculiar cogency is imparted to the appeal that is now being made for funds. It remains for the citizens to offer with creditable promptitude a

response that will express their recognition of an obligation and their sympathy with those whose position must be ameliorated. In Christchurch an effort that is being made to raise in a like manner a much larger sum for similar purposes has already resulted in subscriptions to the extent of over £7OOO. The people of Dunedin can be depended upon, without doubt, to display an equally liberal spirit, and to find their compensation in the satisfaction of knowing that the effect of their contributions to the fund that has now been opened will be that relief will be ensured to the most genuinely needy in this city during the worst season of the year.