EXPLOITATION

NZ Truth, Issue 1176, 14 June 1928, Page 6

EXPLOITATION

— » ■■ ■ Yet Authorities Took No Action! (Prom "N.Z. Truth's" Auckland Rep.) What a Juloy melon Is dear old John Cftlzenl At all times ready to go through the squeezer of public subscription without so much as a murmur! " W/HITHER go his donations and the "• question of their eventual* application never worry him beyond a sincere hope that his humble shilling (has earned him a 24 hours' immunity from further molestations! So the Auckland public, exalting in Its own noble efforts to succor the destitute, might have gone oh indefinitely ■ parting up "one good bob a day" to the. Auckland ■ Unemployment Association: , if a police prosecution had not brought • to light the Rafferty handling of public subscriptions by the executive members of this self-constituted body. However amazing i£ might seem that a small body of irresponsible persons has been, many months conducting a charitable organization with their own } pockets as the primary beneficiaries, , it is singularly inconceivable that the authorities— in possession of certain facts — have not apparently been in a • position to take action against the chief organizers, beyond a charge of begging and idleness against one bf the collectors. '" - : . Secretary Charles Gordon Lindsay, it appears, has been the sole director and chief collector in the whole of this very questionable concern. . Notwithstanding the fact that he knew Coyle, who was dismissed on the above police charges, to be a person with a criminal record, Lindsay allowed this man to handje a very insecure collection-box for a period of eight morithsl The box— exhibited In the police court— was In itself sufficient proof of the association's disrespect for public benevolence.: Coins could be shaken out of th» Insertion silt almost as simply a» they could be dropped into the box. FIFTY-FIFTY SPLIT On the side of < the box was ' another ' aperature which' .one- might- readily as-' sume to be an, emergency exit— or; overflow outlet— to cope with Auckland at the peak of its hospitality. The association's account books, handed to Magistrate Hunt by Secretary Lindsay, showed an appallingly Vague record of the expenditure of funds. •' •.■■-■•'■:'. ■Also, it was estimated in court that the practice of engaging collectors on a fifty-- fifty basis absorbed a heavy .percentage of the total sum collected— something like 30 per cent, going into . the pockets of, the collectors. '; "N.Z. Truth" takes a very live in- • terest in the desperate problem of unemployment and puts a willing shoulder to the wheel of any local or, national scheme, organization or solution genuinely designed to alleviate the distress of out-of-work New Zealanders. It is to be regretted that so worthy, a cause has fallen into disrepute at the hands of an association, which, on the pretext of helping its, fallen fellows, has placed Number One first, last and all the time. . ■ ; : If the public purse is to be protected from exploitation by street-lounging parasites who find they can attach themselves to certain charitable appeals . without showing proof of character, the authorities must bestir themselves by applying the acid test to the Integrity, of all such bodies as soon as their activities commence. It seems hardly credible that an or-' ■ ganizatioh handling hundreds of pounds for charity funds' has had an, open field ' „ in Auckland during the past 'eight months without the supervision of a responsible committee of reputed citizens. ■'.■.-,. It leaves wide open the possibilities for nefarious 'enterprise. y