THE UNEMPLOYED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 300, 18 December 1931, Page 7

THE UNEMPLOYED.

Another Appeal Made to the

Government. WORK OR SUSTENANCE. Another effort is being made by the unemployed to impress on the Government the seriousness of the position arising from the absence of employment. After lengthy discussion at a meetU?S of the unemployed held in the I rades Hall last evening, it was resolved that a letter be sent to the Prime Minister (the Right Hon G. W. Forbes) and the Minister-in-charge of Unemployment (the Right Hon J. G. Coates) urging on them the necessity of providing work or relief over the Christmas and New Year period. Mr J. S. Barnett presided. It was pointed out that there was an increasing possibility of unemployment in the city at the present time, and conditions were becoming intclerable to the social order of the people. They were reaching a strain which would lead to obvious dissension. It was imperative that the Minister should provide work during the next week for the thousand-odd men who had not yet received instructions to proceed to work. Otherwise the Minister should provide sustenance payments during the suspension of the No. 5 scheme during the Christmas and New Year period. The Minister of Health should issue orders to the North Canterbury Hospital Board to provide double rationing during this period, without imposing task work, it was claimed. This should be done before the closing down of the No. 5 scheme’s operations. The charitable resources of the citizens of Christchurch w'ere taxed to the utmost, and it was considered an urgent necessity for the Minister for Unemployment to consider favourably these requests designed for the well-being of those citizens whose depressed circumstances were due to the failure of the Government to grasp the realities and seriousness of the position. Should the Government fail to recognise the request of the unemployed, the men declared, it would have to bear the onus of hunger marches and petty and major crimes which were the result of the lack of adequate means of living among those out cf work.