The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1927. POLITICS AND SOUP KITCHENS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 10

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1927. POLITICS AND SOUP KITCHENS

IT is asserted as a statement of cold fact that social distress is more acute in Auckland to-day tlian it has been in any winter since the bad old days of New Zealand’s political Pharaohs. If the assertion be true, then the position is a reproach to Auckland’s tribe of legislators. This province is represented in the Government and Legislature of the country by four Cabinet Ministers (including the Prime Minister), eight Legislative Councillors, and at least a score of active members of Parliament. Together they provide more than one-fourth of the total administrative .and parliamentary strength of the Dominion. Their collective voice in national affairs is such that when Auckland speaks the representatives of all the other provinces might well be as Wordsworth’s party in a parlour—“all silent and all damned.” And what is the result of their combined political wisdom? The bitter answer in too many homes to-day is: “Soup kitchens.” It is a bad thing for the temper of the people that such an ugly retort should leap so readily from many tongues. A great effort should be made to remove the causes of the gibe.

There is no official information as to the actual number of unemployed and recipients of charity from benevolent institutions and humane organisations. The Government- has been more eager to secure an expert at £9OO a year to tell us monotonously that the weather will be cold and changeable with snow on the high country than to take a thorough census of unemployed and social distress cases, or to compile a State register of the employment available for men and women seeking work. It is true that the Labour Department is supposed to know all about the needs of workers, but its exact knowledge of the subject could be engraved on a postage stamp. An efficient administration would have had complete information on record at the beginning of winter and also would have had developed long ago a co-operative system by which State officers and representative citizens with a flair for social service could have helped the unemployed to find work without the delay that drives impoverished families to mission soup kitchens. That is neither a counsel of perfection nor pious idealism. It is simply plain common sense well within the understanding of professional politicians. So far, they have done nothing, said nothing, dreamed nothing about devising a practical policy. It is fair to recognise that they are in recess and resting in contemplative preparation for the usual record session, but their remuneration goes on. If it were diverted for a time into the channels of charitable aid the shm would supply the families of the unemployed with soup aplenty, and toheroa soup at that. But no one really desires to deprive earnest legislators of their salaries. Is it not written in the law of Moses, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn”? What is wanted by the majority of the unemployed is work instead of charity soup, while everybody else wants less complaining in the streets. A special duty devolves upon the Government to provide employment for the genuine unemployed. It brought over twelve thousand immigrants last year to a weak labour market. There is much public work to be done. Why not have it put in hand while the Dominion’s credit is higher than any other State borrower’s abroad? It is surprising that the Leader of the Opposition has not been more constructive on the subject of soup kitchens. Mr. Holland is missing a great opportunity to disclose the resources of statesmanship. Going up and down the earth like a wandering minstrel, he harps on land settlement and plays an old tune to tickle the ears of small farmers, when he knows quite well that what the country needs in order quickly to absorb its increasing population is more factories and the manufacture of first-class New Zealand goods to replace imported shoddy. Unless that policy of industrial expansion be developed, hundreds of unemployed each winter will haunt soup kitchens, while politicians are living easily on the fat of the land.