THE UNEMPLOYED
COMPULSORY CAMPS
ADDRESS BY NATIONAL
SECRETARY
A REQUEST GRANTED
An outline of the activities of the Union of Unemployed was given to a poorly attended meeting in Smiths Hall last night by Mr D. McLaughlin (national secretary), who in his address also referred to various aspects of the compulsory camp system. His Worship the Mayor (Mr John Miller) presided, and in introducing Mr McLaughlin said that every encouragement had been given to the people of Invercargill to come that night and hear what he had to say about the burning question of sending married men to camp. It had been hoped that a general discussion could have taken place. In the course of his address, Mr McLaughlin emphasized that there was no foundation whatever for any allegation that the local Unemployed Workers’ Association was allowing to creep into its activities Communistic feelings. The association, in actual fact, had always counselled its members against such an attitude. Indeed, Mr P. Marchant had clearly issued in the Southland Times of February 2, 1934, a warning to relief workers against Communist activities. Touching upon the camp dispute, Mr McLaughlin expressed gratification that the controlling authorities had consented to his organization’s request to provide the wives and families of the men ordered to camp with a guarantee of sufficient money for necessities week by week instead of waiting for monthly payments. Mr Pearce (the _ Public Works engineer) had not yet given his undertaking in writing, but his clerk had assured him (Mr McLaughlin) that the request had been acceded to. The speaker appealed to the small business men and the small farmers to unite their forces with the unemployed to secure for themselves bare justice—no more, no less. A family living wage must be assured. The Public Works definition of a full-time week meant six days’ work a week if it did not rain; if it did rain those whole six days, then no work.
Business People Sympathetic.
At the conclusion of Mr McLaughlin’s address, Mr H. Ritchie said that a great many business men were fully in sympathy with the position of the unemployed. It was always interesting to hear both sides of the matter. The trouble, however, was that many men in work were just on the bread-and-butter line and the whole stumbling block was finance. Many institutions had shown themselves to be very considerate in their dealings with the man out of work. Personally he sympathized with the plight of the unemployed and he thought the present policy of the Government tended rather to accentuate the position. The morale of the men should be raised and the capitalist should loosen up his purse strings. Speaking as a councillor, Mr Ritchie assured Mr McLaughlin that the unemployed had the sympathy of the Invercargill City Council to a man. The Mayor expressed appreciation of the action of the Public Works engineer in arranging that the wives of the men in camp would receive their money every week instead of waiting for a month. That was an arrangement he (the Mayor) had urged at a previous meeting. Referring to the CarolineJosephville work, his Worship said he could not understand why the Public Works Department could not undertake to feed the men while on the job as was done with single men’s camps. No man cooking for himself fed himself properly. It would assist the men very materially if they could receive the wages stated and also at the,same 'time, be fed by the department. The Mayor expressed the opinion that when a man, after a fair trial, could not earn the stipulated wages he should be given the opportunity of obtaining work on some other job. Mr McLaughlin added that when he had discussed that matter with the deputy chairman of the Unemployment Board, Mr Bromley had stated that that was a question for Cabinet. Mr McLaughlin said he wished it placed on record that he had found Mr Pearce a very humane man and, in exercising his discretion by granting the wives weekly payments, he paved the way for Southland to lead the way in this respect for the whole of the Dominion. On the motion of his Worship Mr McLaughlin was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address. This evening Mr McLaughlin intends delivering addresses to relief workers and their wives regarding the activities of his organization.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19350219.2.83
Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 22510, 19 February 1935, Page 8
Word Count
729THE UNEMPLOYED Southland Times, Issue 22510, 19 February 1935, Page 8
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Southland Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.