TO GIVE RELIEF

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1932, Page 5

TO GIVE RELIEF

WHILE POSSIBLE

HOSPITAL BOARD’S DECISION

(By Telegraph—Ber Brest Association)

AUCKLAND, April 20

“As long as the responsibility for relief rests on the Hospital Board, ail persons in need will be relieved..'

'inis decision was made by the Auckland Hospital Board after hearing a deputation from the Unemployed Workins’ Association, which iisiied what its attitude would be to men who. had refused to work ou account u, the conditions imposed hv the Government. The deputation. which obviously deeply impressed the Board by its bearing and its representations, said that tlie Association was composed of intelligent, respectable, law-abiding citizens, woo took no responsibility lor the riots. The chairman (Mi- W. Wallace), said that the Government hud asked the Board to continue the relief for three months, and the Board’s duty was plain. The men must be fed, whatever the consequences, The men who had strujek were protesting against tinconditions forced on them by the Gov. eminent, and anyone who had seen the conditions at. the Akuaka. Swamp drainage camp would realise thnt those conditions were merely creating Bolsheviks.

Mr Hewitt (chairman of the Relief Committee): Jf the Government won’t come to our aid, we cannot afford to keep these unemployed going with relief. Mr Wallace: Keep on as you are doing. The Government forced us into this position, and it must take the responsibility. Do. Gunson said that it seemed pitiable that the citizens of Auckland could not get together and tackle the problem. If they did get together in the right spirit, it could he settled in fortyeight hours. Earlier in the meeting, commenting on the local bodies’ letter expressing alarm at the Board’s expenditure, Mr M all aco said that as long as the responsibility for outdoor relief was thrown on the Board all local bodies should go down on their knees and thank Heaven for what the Board’s Relief Committee had done.

A MANFESTO ISSUED. BY METHODIST MINISTERS. DUNEDIN. April 20. The Methodist Ministers Association has issued a. manifesto urging the Government to (a) immediately abolish the “stand down week”; (It) that there shall be. iio further reduction in wages: (c) increasingly to provide productive, work as far as possible; (d) to provide sustenance for all who lire physically incapable of u’irk.