PLEA FOR SUSTENANCE MEN.

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 11

PLEA FOR SUSTENANCE MEN.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I see that the council is going to - employ a number of men under scheme 13 at the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery. I would like to ask if the person responsible for engaging these will insist that they should be married men, drawn from the ranks of those who have been., on sustenance for, say, not less tlifan six months. The reason for asking this is that there is a large number 'of us who have not had a day’s work for perhaps a year or more, being classed by the doctor as unfit for heavy work (which really means that we are not fit perhaps to work in a quarry or dig a drain 6ft deep, or anything of a like nature). "We are deprived by those in charge of power to obtain labouring work of any description, and kept on sustenance the whole time. We keep calling on the placement officer in the hope of perhaps securing something som'e day, but our usual reply is “ Nothing doing, but keep in touch with me.” Meanwhile we see other men finish one job and go straight to another one, very often with a lot of overtime attached to it, and we wonder why it should be so, when there are so many of us who would be glad of a share of the work, which would also tend to cut out most of the overtime and give everyone a living wage. There is a large number of us on sustenance who could and would <*ivo a better day’s work than a lot f or those employed, as could be easily seen by a stroll past the numerous works going on, especially at the aerodrome, where you never see more than about half the labourers giving a fair day’s work for the wages they receive. As it is getting on for Christmas and we have had a fairly.hafd time of it for a long time now, and, according to Mr, Fraser, we are all in for a harder time in the near future, I s think that it is up to those in charge to give us sustenance men a chance, as I feel sure, knowing the nature of the ground at both the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery and the aerodrome, none of us would find the work there too, heavy- for us, as those in really bad health have mostly been drafted on to an invalid pension.—l am, etc., ■ Year on Sustenance. .September 26.