A SERIOUS POSITION.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17570, 8 March 1929, Page 5

A SERIOUS POSITION.

THAMES UNEMPLOYMENT.

FIFTY MEN WORKLESS,

CAN THEY BE HELPED?

Whilst controversy rages over whether shdps shall be open this day or that day, and whether it is wise or not to have a bathing and picnic spot, there are men, women and children in Thames practically facing the grim fact that there is no food in the cupboard and no

work in sight. Little do most citizens of Thames know as they pass down the brilliantly lighted streets, gazing idly at the goods eatable.and otherwise temptingly displayed in the windows that there are men, women and children, their fellow citizens, who literally do not know where the next meal is coming from, and for whom the future holds no ray of hope that their breadwinner will lie in steady employment.

Not that these folk parade their wants—far otherwise, for many of them are too proud to make known the fact that they are up against it and that poverty which is so often regarded as a crime, has them in its grip. Early last winter the “Thames Star” took up tbe question of the position of many of these men and with the assistance of the then member for the district. Mr. T. W. Rhodes, work was secured for many. Summer came and tlio position was alleviated, but not for all. The representative of the Labour Department in Thames, Mr. R. Lloyd, has 50 names of men who- are unemployed upon his books. The largest number of these men are married and practically all the rest are single men with dependents. .Nearly every one of these men have had their names on the books for months. Recently the lists were purged of those who had failed to enquire -for, work each fortnight. This resulted in a number /of the names being reduced, but it is a known fact nevertheless that they have not got work. It is simply that, tired of the same response, “Sorry, nothing doing,” they have abandoned hope and have ceased their fruitless inquiries.

Not that the Labour Department official has not'* tried to find them work—Mr. Lloyd to-day informed a “Thames Star” reporter that he had again and again tried every avenue from which work might be expected, Government, public body, and private individuals, but the position was simply this—there was no work offering. By great efforts he had been able to place two men in work on the TapuCorogen Road recently, but that was all.

It will be seen that the position is sufficiently serious as it is, but what of the coming winter? Mr. J. W. Danby, deputy chairman of the Thames Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, when approached, admitted that the Board was affording a good deal of relief, hut considered that the future was likely to find tlie position even more acute.

For some little time past he “Thames Star” reporter has been conducting investigations and there is no questions, whatsoever that the situation for many of thes'e families is really serious—in some cases a more fitting word would lie desperate. The position must he faced.

What is the remedy One prominent man who is well seized of the state of affairs and dispenses an appreciable sum of money in doing good by stealth, considers that the best way is to hold a public meeting of citizens with the object of seeing if private work could not be found to keep these families going until there could be held a meeting or conference of local bodies with the Member for the district to endeavour to get some Government money to undertake reproductive works which would give employment.

Another suggestion put forward was that men might be employed to make a fitting entrance to the Totara Cemetery. Whatever he the remedy adopted it cannot ho adopted too soon, nor can ho situation be passed by. The poverty and unemployment exist and nothing can alter the fact. Can anything be done to alleviate it. It is a fact that the bulk of these workless men are hard workers and are too proud to ask for charity—what they want is work. Can Thames give it to them, or must they drift to other towns to live? *