UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

ADDRESS BY MR. COCKER MONEY FOR BAD TIMES The president of the Student Christian Union, Mr. W. 11. Cocker, last night delivered an address on “Christianity and Unemployment’’ at the meeting of the Auckland Council of Christian Congregations. The Rev. D. C. Herron, M.A., M.C., who is the president of the council, was in the chair. The gathering took place at St. David’s Church, in Khyber Pass. In his address, Mr. Cocker declared that unemployment must be 'studied as a problem, and that people must not content themselves with ministering to the needs of the unemployed. The unemployment insurance scheme, unfairly known as the “dole,” was of great benefit to England. This scheme returned to the recipients some of their contributions to the State. One remedy for unemployment suggested was the adjustment of Public Works expenditure, so that more money would be available in bad times. This could easily be done by regulating expenditure. A discussion was then opened. That people in Auckland were starving, but were too proud to ask for relief, was the view advanced by Mr. W. K. Howitt, a member of the relief board of the Auckland Hospital. He complained that relief was dealt out week after week, but that no results were achieved. The system was to blame, the only remedy possible being to stop the cause of unemployment. At the conclusion of the meeting a vote of thanks to Mr. Cocker was passed. t