Letters to the Editor

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 137, 26 June 1937, Page 7

Letters to the Editor

A.

GARDNEB.

Unemployment and Land Settlement Sir, — While the Government and all people desirons of the good of our country are eonsidering ways and nieans of dealing with the appalling position of the unemployment problem, it seems to me that one of the best means of getting over the diffieulty has been overlooked, and that is land settlement. Within fifty miles of Napier we have the Kotemaori, Kakauki, block of land of about 19,000 acres, purchased by a previous Government, y still awaiting settlement. In the Gisborne district there is the Feild estate of, I thinR, some 10,000 acres, in the saifie cofiflition. Then there is the Galatea estate of about 20,000 acres. These prop'erties are all being managed ahd r-un, mostly as sheep farms, by th'e Lands Department. They are doubtlOSs bbing improved, and a eertain amount of labour utilised in the procfess. Why not cut them up into ,'suitable areas for close settlement and allow the setiiers occupying them to do the improvements themselvesf. This could easily be carried out wrfch Government assistance and supervision by why of ldkns advanced for that purpose. In this way many of the ydung meh 4t pr eiehl: looking for, and desifbus of, getting employment, would be, bcctipied -and would build.up homes fbr themfielvbs. I am cohfid'ent a settler on his own farm will "brfeak ih'' ah'ct handih liis country at a very much lfess cost than any Government bmplbying inanagers can. We all recognise that this bdmihiofi requires a g reater population, ahd all sorts of ideas are propbuhdod to this end; while in the nieantime Ve are allowing the pick of ouf maniibod..to remain idle, or to leave the country. This latter a great many of th.em are doing, leaving New Zealand for Australia and elsewhere. Surely, this is a question of tbe ifibst vital inipoftance, and immediate, Stbps shduld be takeh to retaxn our own people in the rand of thexr birtli. — Yours; fetc.; , T. E. LINDSAY: Hastings, Juhe 24;. 1937. "An Englistan's ttblne is His Castle"— -Or js It Not?" , Sir,— How. -we have always ihrdwn back our heads and puffed out our chests as we used tile expresSipn ' 1 au; Englishman 's home is his castle.'' l'n the long ago days, we knevv thafc it was lxteraliy true. Our ancestors first pulled up the drawbridge — and laughed at tho invader- across the iixbat. Ahd tiiough the days of bridge ahd' porteullis .anil nxoat are over; we still lxave our doors, aixd oux' keys, aixd the choxce of admitting visitors. Or we thought We had. The other day oh rbturilihg to ixiy ■ home, I found two documents tbat had been left, whether by ope person pr by two separate ■ ones, 1 khow hOt. Docfi- . xiient number oue ixiiormed me that on a certaiin day, befcween eertain hours an official of the Hastings Borough Council "intended to. enter" m'y honib for the purpose of "making a surve'y,.'' etc. No "if eonvenient" or 1 ; with your permission. " Almost sounds like "forcible1 efitry, ' { does it not? Bo that a mbre bofbiigk official may do what the owfier of tlie house cannot do. 1 think I am right dfi saying that even the owner of the house, with his property in the market, is fiot" legally entitled to enter that house to shOxv a probable buyer over, without pOrmission of the tenant. He may (usually. dofes) So "perinit," but he has the option. Suppose the receiver of that xxotice resents the high-handed, not to bay unpolite and dxijudicious wording (thO "I intend" statement), what happens? Does the inspector just break and enter per way of a window, or by pickine a lock? Please don't tbink I am silly enough 'to gird at the official. He is onjy doing his duty. But the council, dependxng (as a council) on the votes of the people, inight, iii thfe drafting of its documents, be jiist a shadfe inbfe polito. It would be good policy. So much for documont number oue. Number two wants to know xny ago, my sex,- my occupation, my- income and — funniest of all4 my""reason for living in pxxisent locality." The date- Oix number two filight fifford a elfie possibly, since the imprint bears date 2/37. Is the Housing Survey Act of 1935 being worked 'in cOnjunction witlx the Government ys new housing scheme? Does it apply in pafticuiar to what afe sometimes called slum areas? Is this paper being left on residents of the aristocratic west end? Or is the infofmation to be used for the purpose of wfieding out those persofis whOse inconies fali below a ceftain Btandard, in order to gather them all iixto cOttain , diStricts Or arefis? A sort of pebSiofierWorkhouSe schemfe. As I filled in a census paper quite a shott timo ago, giving inost of this information, it seems that theso personal, and really if one comes to think of at, rather im'pertinent question«, are fiot at all liecessary, It seenxs that the quqstion of tent is fill that really malters in Gonnectxon with "house survey. " If you, Six-, eau enlightcn me on any of ( these points, I shall be greatly obliged. — Yours, etc., "WHO GOES THERE.." ] Hastings, Jufie 23, 1937. {•The present survey of housing eon- ■ ditiOns is beilig carried OUt by dlfferent - local bodies ifi vfiriOus parts of the { Dominion Ufider instructiofis from the Governxfient Housing Departfiient. The Housing Act 1935 gives full authority to duly xtppo'ifited officers to ifispect houses, aiid the loca] bodies have no alternative but to carry out the survey. —Editor ] 1 1 ] Sustenance and Squandering |) 1 Sii\ — The latest outburst agaxnst the { morals of the sustenance inen impels me i to take up my pen in protest. The ' foliowing statement is an extraet from ( Mrs N. M. Molesworth 's renxarks on i sustenance nien: "The increased sus- . tenance pay has not been a help; ] generally spoaking it has been a ' curse. ' '■ ] Mrs Molesworth holds the position of lj

inspector of . the S'oeiety for the Protection of Women Wfid Children. The wives and children of sustenance meix surely waix't protectioix irom suck wild and thoughtless statements. If Mrs' Moleswortfi. were on®sustenance with a family she ' would flnd out just how xHuih of a curse an increase .an sustenahce ahiouhted to. 1 Would JikO to put forward, Sir, for S'dribxis cb|X6ideratioix a sclienie whieii woxxld inVolve those who are ifi einployiiie'fit relihquisixing their jobs ifi favoixr oi" those Who are uneinployed. Every' hmpibyed nian would take his tiirn ofi SuktbnancO, jjrofession'fil, hiahfigerafii, aiid bther technical Wdrkers, whd could iidt bfe Ifijjldced go Oi sustenafied pay ior a period, the difference in salary being paid into the un empioyment f ixnd. Pdril'fips ihe turnihg-over ih one's nxind of the poSsibi,lities of feiich a sehfcnie will tend tb make some of the emplbyod a T'ittle morb tolerant toivards thfe unemployed. In fact they could perhaps actualiy visualise some of the debauching times that could be' obtained on Sustenance gambling, drinking, car rides, etc. Thd ScHdind of cbxirsd; Mr Editbf, would only be a palliative, but palliativcs scem to be the order of the day and it wdiild hav'e ttdxrib (iducativd Valixfe." Frdsperdty tilese days seeini to ii'e measured by unemployed statistics, and a lot of people s.eem quite reconciled to the idea tixat We wili always have that human scrap-lieap, the unemployed. Alcolxol has a mastering effect on all lixiinan bdings no matter what their p03itibh iii soeiety is, and I am sure the average man, on finding himself uh- ' einployfed. as inore concerned with finding andther jdb thafi wasting his time gambling ahd driiiking. The man who would epehd his sustdnance money fooiishly Wotdd spefid any mdney foolishly, Whether employed or in business' for Mmseif. If a coupon system is applicabla to the unemployed it iS equally applicable to those in erfiployfixent find .those who eifijfloy.— Yoixfs, btc..

Hastings, June 24, 1937.