FOR LOVE OF MANKIND

NZ Truth, Issue 1291, 4 September 1930, Page 10

FOR LOVE OF MANKIND

Red Cross Work Which Should Be More Widely Known CLOTHING RELIEF ACTIVITIES (By Mrs. F, E. Joyce, Secretary of the Ladies' Auxiliary of Red Cross Peace Time Division, m a special interview-, with "N.Z. Truth.") ; Two thousand years ago a man called Jesus, said to a blind man," after anointing his eyes,- '' Receive Thy Sight," but lots of the canny folk iii the street wanted to know whose fault it was that the man was blind!- And so to-day, like the imperfect people of two thousand years ago, who questioned the wisdom of a perfect man, do the comfortable and safe, who have what is equivalent to sight, question as to whose fault it is that poverty exists !

BUT there is no time to discuss the reasons for all this lack of work, money, clothing and food while people shiver, while men scuffle along like convicted felons because they are aware that their shirt is filthy and if they lift their feet too high the soles flap up and catch m the broken pavements, leaving their bare feet to meet the stones. Our organisation has no politics, and the love of mankind is the dominant note iA' it's, activities. ; Our work deserves to be more widely known and helped,- particularly that branch known as Clothing Relief Evej-y Wednesday. . from vetght; o'clock onward^frpm fifty to seyent-yw men, women*. anq'' r even childifen^ wait.- for. the depot m; Dixon Street v" to '";pp.en for distr^ution • work.' More'^tlfan^'half the applicamt&T' i V;a r« homeljfejSs*' m / 9ti£.?w;hc> have:;; wives; v jyith^v rela^ tions^; ■ while • they, hunt for work. We are "asked frequently Why it is the single man does not get out into the backblocks where .labor is needed." Personally, I have never known a single/ man,: who has been to us", to r refuse to go without some very valid reason. 'They are only too ready to go m return for a home and a few shillings -weekly. The much-maligned single man, who is supposed to hang round the- town . rather than go away, is rare.; : ... $• ' :, yi To me, the'most desperate i and dangerousV cases are those of single women, . childless widows or mothers where*" Small families have grown up and left' the nesti, ; : . . Children have their own battle to fight, and. it is rarely among this class I;hat a daughter marries, beyond her parents' station m life. No one requires a woman m the advanced forties as a servant. In some instances she is .not smart enough; m others, the prospective employer is bound to give an eye to business, and knows ;,that this woman is less reliable

physically than a younger woman. Our work at the Red Cross, then, is to endeavor to 'supply' the needed clothing to enable the woman to present as comfortable and prosperous an appearance as possible, as well as to achieve the more mundane, but necessary task, of keeping her warm, and helping her to conserve her scanty earnings for the food she needs and the humble room she usually shares with another. ; To return to our menfolk, however, the urgent need is for shirts and boots. We started one ' Wednesday with three shirts, but a rapid counting of heads showed fifty men waiting for shirts! And these men decided to wait m case a parcel arrived while they waited. It is clothes we want. Where i s this mysterious place to which go the worn boots of the business man who does not do his own garden and thus ruin them? The ones we get usually are the relics of unsold jumble sale stuff, with very little wear m them, and are usually given a ride to the destructor immediately. That is why we are so grateful to those thoughtful people who discriminate with their unsold jumble, and only send us useful, wearable stuff. Our average monthly issue of garments is noW about 1500 m Wellington and 850 m Lower Hutt, which cares for Petone, Wallaceville and Taita residents as well. Boots average 60 to 70 pairs a month m each place. But we want more to meet the great demand. Hence they come to us for the clothing, but we can only give what is given us. At the Wellington depot the greatest need is men's boots, shirts and trousers—although everything is needed. At the Hutt' depot the cry is for boys' and schoolgirls' clothes, prams, beds, shoes by the hundred, for the rough back roads are hard on shoe leather.