The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1932. EVADING RESPONSIBILITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 152, 30 June 1932, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1932. EVADING RESPONSIBILITY

J-JAVING accepted the decision of the hospital boards that

after June 31 the onus of providing relief for able-bodied unemployed be on the Unemployment Board, that body is emulating Diekens’ Micawber and is still “waiting for something to turn up.” Plainly speaking, the position as regards unemployment in Wanganui'has become desperate and if it is the Government’s policy to wait until something happens before it acts, it may be forced to take a hand very soon.

When the announcement was made at the conference at Wellington, the Wanganui Unemployment Committee decided to amalgamate the charitable institutions in Wanganui and to form a central depot where relief, formerly given by those institutions individually, could be controlled to prevent overlapping. But, just as the Wanganui Hospital Board found that this relief required Government assistance, so has the Unemployment Committee; and just as the Hospital Board found that its request for Government assistance was not acceded to, so has the Unemployment Committee found that its plea for assistance only falls on deaf ears. Yesterday’s meeting of the local committee really amounts to a summing up of the Government’s attitude, and the arrival at a decision to get a plain answer as to its intentions.

A message from Auckland, published to-day, plainly states that action is being taken to bring the dispute with the Unemployment Board to a head, and the president of the Hospital Boards’ Association, Mr. W. Wallace, suggests the intervention of the Prime Minister in order to induce the Unemployment Board to accept its responsibility. That it has such a responsibility is also the opinion of the Minister of Health, Hon. J. A. Young who, having been acquainted with the decision of the hospital boards, -concurs in the view that fit men are definitely the responsibility of the Unemployment Board. Such a lamentable lack of decision on so vital a matter is difficult to understand, and the Unemployment Board’s “stonewall” in the face of a flood of requests for a statement of its intentions, including one from the Minister, is little short of incredible.

This policy of sitting on the fence while local bodies struggle with the burden cannot be continued indefinitely, and being unable to cope with the demand for assistance, the local committee wishes to know what the Unemployment Board is going to do about it. Either the board is shirking its duty or else it is not yet awake to the fact that it has a duty to carry out. The Wanganui Unemployment Committee’s request helps to swell the volume of the Dominion-wide demand for action.