STARVING FAMILIES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 March 1932, Page 4

STARVING FAMILIES.

(To the Editor)

gi v .. i was astonished to read that Mr Jordan takes exception to the statement that families are starving in Mastertou, and I would like to ask your readers how it could be otherwise with the unemployed ? Take my own case, for example. I am in receipt of the maximum amount of relief pay, i-t-, £6 11s 3d per month, and it takes no delving into algebra to see that I cannot possibly half-feed my family of four after I have paid the rent. But I don’t wish to focus attention on my. own case. What of the men with six children? Although the financial heart of the town may be sound, as Mr Jordan says, it is no use blinking the fact that we have a couple of hundred families in very needy circumstances, while all around us we have evidence of great wealth. And what is the Government’s attitude? So far it has been one of dolee far niente. Some time ago Mr Coates proudly declaimed: "We must not become a nation of navvies,” but all he has to offer the unemployed sedentary worker to-day is a pick and shovel. Those electors who fell for the bed-time stories at the general election must surely be awake'to the fact that there are only blanks to be drawn from the ballot-boxes. There are bad times ahead, and before winter comes the ranks of the local unemployed will be swelled by anything from two to three hundred. The best thing the unemployed can do is to get together and stick together, and organise against the coming winter. —I am, etc., TIM FAGAN. Mastertou, 17th March.