NEW PLYMOUTH “POUND SCHEME.”

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1934, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH “POUND SCHEME.”

Owing to lack of funds the New Plymouth “pound scheme” has ceased operation for the current year. During the 17 weeks in which it has acted as a distributing agency for the benevolent of the town and district the committee controlling the pound scheme has distributed an average of over one ton of food per week to needy families. The control of the distribution has necessitated a good deal of careful organisation, and that it has been exercised so successfully speaks well for the tact and discretion shown by the chairman, Captain Chandler, of the Salvation Army, and his colleagues. The contribution directly and indirectly of such a large quantity of food is a tribute to the generosity of North Taranaki residents and to their realisation that despite all the State’s efforts to minimise the effects of

lack of employment there is still need, and continuous need, for private benevolence, The pound scheme has ended for lack of funds, not because the necessity for its operations has ceased, though the position should be less acute during the coming months than it was in the winter. Nor has the generosity been confined to those who gave supplies. The retailers have given generously of their time as well as of their goods in an endeavour to make the collection of tire gifts as simple and as effective as possible, while the pains taken by various volunteer social workers in making the distribution a success is well known to all who have shared in the work of assisting the needy in the winter months. It is to be hoped that individual efforts to relieve distress will not be allowed to slacken. There can be no better way of doing so than the offer of employment, even odd hours or days of employment, to those who are seeking work. Many households might be able to offer a small amount of work, and while the cost of the individual would be small the benefit to the community as a whole would be considerable. After careful inquiry 450 families were found to require help from the pound scheme in North Taranaki. That plan of relief having been suspended, at least a proportion of the families assisted would receive needed benefit from any other form of private help. And there is no help so valuable as the provision of work for those who need it.