SERIOUS POSITION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 313, 29 August 1932, Page 4

SERIOUS POSITION

The position whlch has developed with regard to the single relief workers paid off from. one of the Kaingaroa Plains' camps last Tuesday is becoming serioujs and calls for immediate official action. Without entering into the merits Of the case, or the justification for the discipline which the authorities may see fit to impose, the men, as men, even if they happen to be refractory unemployed, and the citizens of Rotorua, are entitled to some consideration. Thirty-six men were originally discharged from the camp and to-day almost a week since they arrived in the town, 26 of them are still stranded in Rotorua and a charge upon the community. It is no exaggeration to state that the plight of these men is desperate. They have little or no money and in order to feed them over the week-end, the local Relief Workers' Association was reduced to the straits of begging for surplus food from the boardinghouses. A subscription list which was hastily circulated also assisted, and provided at least one meal for the men yesterday. At present they are being billeted at the dosshouse and in various private homes and boardinghouses, but this means of accommodation and hand-to-mouth feeding cannot continue indefin- | itely. The position baldly, is this. j The Rotorua Relief Workers' As- | sociation and private individuals were able to provide the men with shelter and food until this morning, but after to-day it is very doubtful whether anything further can be done. A community cannot have men destitute and hungry in its midst; quite apart from ordinary humanitarian considerations, hungry men are likely to prove dangerous men and trouble would almost certainly be precipitated. With several exceptions, the men have behaved well, but something must be done either to remove them or provide them with some means of stnstenance. The Unemployment Board and the acting-Minister of Employment (Hon. Adam Hamilton) were apprised of the position on Wednesday of last week, but so far the only reply that has been received is the advice that Mr. Hamilton has "referred the question" to his colleague, Mr. Ransom. In the present position the unemployment authorities will deserve strong censure if they permit the matter to dawdle through the usual channels of circumlocution. If the board is not prepared to return the men to their places of domicile or to find them work in some other camp, something should be done to provide for them in Rotorua. They cannot be left without resources as a charge upon a community which already has quite su'fficient troubles of its own.