THE FAMILY ALLOWANCE.

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 11

THE FAMILY ALLOWANCE.

TO TUB EDITOR. . Sir, —There is surely some mistake in the action of the Government pension officials of Dunedin when men with large families dependent upon them are cut off the family allowance fund as soon as they start working full time. This helpful payment is supposed to be granted subject to the previous year’s earnings not exceeding certain limits, and yet men just off the dole are being docked. The declining birth rate can easily be accounted for when we remember the living allowance meted out to workers during the past few years. We hope for better things. Healthy, happy home life should be made possible to all in a land so blessed r.i ours. Single men and women should be paid a wage enabling them to prepare for marriage, and married folk should Be encouraged to live naturally and rear future citizens. . It is a crime that God’s beautiful supply of all the essentials of life should be intercepted and gambled with by fortune hunters. The position of the family man is serious; any increase he may receive in one way is with brutal precision taken off him in another. If he receives lOd rise his food costs him Is more, leaving him 2d poorer. The employer passes on all “ added ” costs and adds a little to the profits for luck. The same bread that sold for 7d now sells at lid and Is, which suggests that profits have risen more than the costs. The preacher says “ The Lord will provide.” He has without doubt provided, but the provision is not reaching His children. Greed is not a crime, nor is the burning of food in order to maintain prices a crime in our criminal code. It is but a sacrifice to the goddess “ Profit,” before which all too many worship in these modern times. If the birth rate is to be improved and those already born given a fair chance a family allowance of at least 5,s a week per child must be guaranteed over and above the wage paid for work performed.—l am. etc., G. A. Herring. September 12. [As regards the family allowance, the administration is in accordance with the Act. The price of bread was raised by the Labour Government.—Ed. E.S.]