THE DOLE IN ENGLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1931, Page 13

THE DOLE IN ENGLAND

EVILS OF THE SYSTEM.

INDOLENCE ENCOURAGED.

“It is generally acknowledged to be a very poor substitute indeed for work,” said Commissioner J. Cunningham, of the Salvation Army, last week in discussing the working of the dole system in England. Commissioner Cunningham came out to New Zealand about eight months ago to take charge of the work of the Army in this country and he has had wide and recent experience of social conditions in the Old “The moral effect on the man o-ut of work who is drawing Die dole is bad in the extreme,” said tne’ commissioner. “When any man comes to draw the dole month after month while he is doing no work he is undoubtedly becoming demoralised and the great danger is that he will drift into a condition in which he will not want to work at all.”

Commissioner Cunningham pointed out that what is so widely spoken of as the “dole” is really an insurance against unemployment and those who-draw from it are expected first to have contributed to it. There was no doubt that the scheme

intentions in the world, but those responsible never dreamt for a moment that it would come to be abused in the was brought into existence with the best manner in which it had been.

In the larger towns of England it was quite a common thing to see long queues of able-bodied men waiting to receive thei. payment and for the rest of the week they would be simply hanging about street corners and steadily drifting into becoming .shiftless, helpless follows. They lost their initiative and their ability to work, (Are of the grave objections to the system was its bad effect on numbers of youths who have qualified to draw the dole. There were also many cases ol men who had been living on the dole for years. “It is not a good system; I am an advocate of work,” said the commissioner. “It would be far better for the nation to provide these men with remunerative work.” Speaking of New Zealand conditions, the commissioner said a great many men j had been put on to work which they [ knew was unnecessary and the natural >' result was that they failed to take, in; interest in a job of that kind. They were to be sympathised with'in such a .situation. ■ ■ Touching on the important question of ]

getting men away from the crowded centres out to the country, Commissioner Cunningham said he had been advocating to a number of leading men that some of the land at present lying waste should be brought under cultivation. Even if that were done at considerable cost, the improved land would be an asset from which at least a considerable part of the cost could be recovered. It certainly would be less expensive than . some of the present schemes, from which there was no return at all.

The Salvation Army had two or three farms for training boys in agriculture, but tlie whole problem of settling townsfolk on the land is regarded as one for the Government. The pumice country in the Rotorua district was an area often spoken of as eminently suitable for bringing under production and even if the cost proved to be more than the land was worth, the Government would recover part and would have done something worth while for the future of the country and for the men concerned.