UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

SOME of our correspondents in today's issue seem quite indignant at 'the'- suggestion made by the foreman j to. the Borough Council that unem- | ployment relief men be required to ] provide their own tools if they want | further work under the Council's supervision. y'- r On the face of it the suggestioni'is* one not to be commend|.ed; but doubtless the Borough Council, y/hich approved the suggestion, ihadv fuller information on. the subject |than;was contained in. the foreman's ly/ritten report. For instance, it can hardly be seriously suggested that the Council should be called upon to provide, picks and "shpveii'that the relief at least, .someof take no care of, and, as they.seem I .to resent .supervision, the mysteriously mislaid or lost. . If,•■ they were called upon to provide therrlown tools of trade, just as carpenters j and workers in quite a number of, other :trades are required to do, .it-is : certain that such tools wQuld;notbe mislaid. There are, we have several other cogent reasons for the foreman's recommendation':that it is;

perhapsfhot politic to publish in the workers' :we feel:confident that relief workers who> >are ■.conscientious and unable to provide, their own picks and shovels will not be denied the opportunity to obtain ein~ ploynient the scheme. Unfortunately there are wasters and unreliable men in the gangs, just as there are in other aggregations ; 4 of men employees, and their lack of .principle is apt to cause hardship' on the genuine ones. We have no knowledge as to whetherf the three writers :are relief workers or'not, but if they "are they must know that all such workers are not conscientious and reliable. We recall that -at a. recent meeting of another local body not a hundred miles from Te Awamutu- pnie of the members expressed sympathy with the unemployed, but added that some were so* shriftless that : wheh J ; work wais provided for- |hem; >they. wanted facilities for : transport ;■ and quite lVa snuniber of other provisions before fthey would undertake the tasks allotted :themi; If that- class of- man wants fair, treatment he should, in his', turn, be prepared to give fair treatment. A Waipa county councillor last Monday, when discussing | provision of unused sections; in.vari-' ous parts of the county, so i l - i employed men could make vegetable gardens, facetiously inquired, whether they wanted free seeds and manure for the -"garde-rip Itoo, and whether ■when the crop was ripe, the-' should not also arrange to havo. the ! produce picked and.•' marketed \f-$3&, \ was probably not entirely serious, but from reports seems evident- that -there was«)me justification S|his' inquiry.'"% do not; nor did JHfeounbi^lpr^sug^est: that' all the . Kf unworthy; but we

ployer wouldn't pay two shillings a day to work for him. Our advice to the correspondents is: If you have a fair and reasonable case, it will get sympathetic consideration by the local bodies and their servants. The borough foreman, we are confident, had no wish to impose an unjust hardship on any of them; but naturally he, as a servant of the Council, has no desire or intention to see that body fooled or robbed. A lot of money wrung from an exasperated public has already been frittered away to provide sustenance for the out-of-works. If genuine efforts are made to earn it, there is some satisfaction or salve; but to have rnen drawing money without endeavouring to earn it is galling—and unlikely to be tolerated for long.