NO SILVER LINING

Evening Star, Issue 19781, 3 February 1928, Page 9

NO SILVER LINING

THE IMEKPLOVKHT SITUATION

[Special to tub * Star.’J

AUCKLAND, February 2

With tho mayor’s unemployment fund nearing exhaustion, and tho consequent cessation of operations on all relief works, with the exception of the Western Springs development scheme and the War Memorial Museum undertaking at the Domain, the prospects for Auckland’s army of workless are particularly dismal. Little work of any description is offering, and official figures specially compiled for the ‘ Star ’ at the Trades Hall, disclose that in the Auckland district alone there are 3,836 organised workers idle. Including unorganised labor, particularly women and girls, warehouse employees, clerks, etc,, it is estimated that in the city alone there are 5,000 unemployed at the present time. On the face of things, there is no necessity to reiterate that the position has gone from bad to worse since Christmas, and social workers, such as the' Rev. Jasper Calder, city missioner, and Major Annie Gordon, of the Salvation Array, are at their wits’ end to know just how, with their depleted resources. to assist in alleviating the distress that exists on all sides.' They weathered last winter, but they hesitate to think of the deplorable conditions that are bound to exist during the next six months, unless a. genuine attempt is made to provide work for honest people who are suffering 'through the lean times descending upon them. People who have never been compelled to live on the bread and butter line before are now doing so, and struggling desperately to keep body and soul together on more pittances. Poverty is more rife in Auckland than possibly it has ever been previously in its history, and there is no “silver lining” to give encouragement for tho future.