£44,479 FOR RELIEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 640, 17 April 1929, Page 10

£44,479 FOR RELIEF

UNEMPLOYMENT BURDEN HOSPITAL BOARD ALARMED The seriousness of the unemployment situation again occupied the attention of the Auckland Hospital Board at its last meeting before the local body elections yesterday afternoon. 'J'HE discussion arose as a result of a letter from the Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward, outlining the Gov’ p r osmr. S aCtiVitieS in G t°h V e The chairman, Mr. W. Wallace T44 e ?-o that ‘ he board bad spent £44,4 1 9 m relief payments for the year ended March 31, 1929. This sum eX S,t eC * e< t tbe es tifhntes by £l4 479 *hJ h K 6 w ' nter had n °t yet started, but the board was spending about £4 000 a month m relief. He urged that the Government and local bodies should co-operate in remedying a position that had become very acute “It seems a scandal that the Government cannot bring about a happier state of affairs than that existing at present,” he said. “This extraordinary state of affairs has been going on month after month. It seems absolutely absurd that the Government should go on ’tinkering’ A 1 1 .1 'situation. It is nonsense to say that the Government does not know the state of affairs.” =h Mr m E ' ?• otter said that the board should ask the Government for a subsidy on the money it had spent, and would spend this winter. The board had urged for a long time that the unemployed relief paid by the board fund W C ° me fr ° m the consolif lated DOING THINGS IN A HURRY „ ** r .’ M ; j ' , Coyle said that there was ' r > /.h' n S to show- for the expenditure of relief money. It was an entire loss. “If war were declared to-mor-row we would do a lot of things m a hurry,” said Mr. Coyle. Yet the country was faced with a crisis now. and the greatest apathv mg , show h- Men were not .only, being kept In idleness, but ateo

their manhood was being mined, through having to beg for money almost daily. The board was simply throwing money away at present, d* it was not curing unemployment’’ Mr. George Knight, chairman o l lbe Relief Committee, said that the men who came before the committee at Rk last meeting were the finest body at men he had ever seen. All were hoe* estly seeking work. It was all ve?y w ell appealing to the Government, hot at present they were only derfing. with effects and not causes. A eniqj was not being effected in any way bw giving relief. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., said Prime Minister’s letter was like letters the board had been receiving! for some years. Unemployment was a national! problem which should be dealt with, on a national basis. He himself waa at his wit’s end. There was nothing new' in the Prime Minister’s reply* and it seemed that no real effort was to be made to remedy unemployment. “A promise was made by th* Government some months ago that something would be done to solve the unemployment problem* ** is not being done,” said Mr. Savage. The board decided to w r ith the Government again, and also to request the Mayor to summon a conference of local body representatives and members of Parliament to review the situation and search for a remedy.