METHODS OF RELIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 14

METHODS OF RELIEF.

Comparison with English

Schemes.

Miss M. G. Havelaar was welcomed to the Women’s Unemployment Cdmmittee at the meeting held yesterday. Miss Havelaar’s experience has been mostly With boys and girls in ‘the mining districts in England. 'During the few years following the war, there was an influx of Belgians to the British Isles. These people had to be fed and clothed, and resembled very much the unemployed of to-day. Miss Havelaar had a great deal of experience with these people, and this has stood her in good stead in the years that she has been helping with the unemployed. Miss Trent’s scheme for training the girls interested Miss Havelaar. She said that it was an excellent idea. What was lacking in the relief schemes of the country was centralisation. She had heard of several instances of people exploiting the relief depots. More investigation was needed of the claims for aid.

In England, school children were given one good meal a day by the helpers. A short time after this scheme had started it was noticed that the health of the children improved. Mr R. T. Bailey replied to Miss Havelaar, by stating that the matter of overlapping at the relief depots had been discussed before, and had been investigated. There was a story afoot that a man had received six pairs vf boots and sold five. When Mr Bailey first heard the story it was about two pairs of boots. In the North Island, a soup kitchen had been started, and the proposal of starting one of the piecarts on the rounds had been discussed in Christchurch.