A City Missioned Three Days As One of Auckland’s Unemployed

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 128, 20 August 1927, Page 1

A City Missioned Three Days As One of Auckland’s Unemployed

FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF DISTRESS WHAT do the unemployed and the “down and outs” think of the religious organisations which try to help them? This question has been answered very thoroughly by the Rev. C. G. Scrymgeour, of the Methodist Central Mission, and a companion. For three days and two nights they have tramped the city in old clothes, and with unwashed, unshaven faces.

ffiHEY have talked with the out-of-work men, with the drunks and with the flotsam and jetsam of humanity which drifts round the wharves and waterfront and the back streets of Auckland. Their wanderings led them into Queen Street, Freeman's Bay, Victoria Park, round pie carts, and

Into doss houses and the mission houses of the city.

The most amazing discovery made by Mr. Scrimgeour and his companion was that the men with whom they mixed considered that the religious helpers of the poor were only parasites. They consider that the work of the missions and other charitable organisations affords only temporary relief, that the unemployed evil is only suspended and that nothing definite is done. A LAST RESORT Religious organisations were regarded as the last resort by the workless men, and there was a rooted objection among them to being accused of sleeping in any of the doss houses.

Mr. Scrimgeour and his companion wished to find out for themselves what the men did and what they thought of the conditions generally. They have worked among the “down and outs” and knew how to go about their self-imposed investigations. They discovered that a change of

clothes immediately means change of status—a change of caste. In Queen Street they felt uneasy and out of their temporary element. It was only in the back streets, round the wharves and in the parks that they came across the men who were seeking work. Mr. Scrimgeour and his friend were wandering aimlessly along a crowded city street one day and passed a group of well-dressed men. “How would yr ■ like one of those to set on you?” remarked one of the group. “People look down on you as soon as you put on dirty clothes,” Mr. Scrimgeour said. MEN WANT WORK Another important discovery they made was that the unemployed want work and are keen to get it. They want something definite, not temporary relief; that is why there was such consistent criticism of the missions and relief organisations. In all their wanderings Mr. Scrimgeour and his companion heard very, very little reference to Bolshevism, and this did not come from the men who were “broke and homeless.” There was a genuine desire for peace. "We want steady work and steady pay. We don’t want war or strife,” they said. There was the unemployable element, of course, said Mr. Scrimgeour, but there were not many of those men about. They talked of Bolshevism. Among the sailors from overseas Mr. Scrimgeour found a genuine sympathy for the workless. The investigation had its amusing side, for there are tricks in every trade. Advice was given on the best methods of obtaining clothing, food and beds. Warnings against the police were frequent. “Don’t knock round after 10,” they were told, "or you’ll be given two months for ‘vag.’ ” “Say you are sailors and that you have lost your papers,” was one of the tricks to obtain a bed. Mr. Scrimgeour and his companion were warned against certain of the missions, and told which ones were the best. There was a desire among the men during their wanderings to help one another; and always the desire to find permanent employment. “A SPINELESS HERRING” The unemployable are looked upon with disdain by the genuine unemployed. Mr. Scrimgeour heard one orator refer to one of them as “a spineless herring who gets us in wrong.” “Rotters were the exception,” said Mr. Scrimgeour. “We found very few of them. Good turns instead of the supposed bad, were the rule among the men.” Although Mr. Scrimgeour and his companion found that the religious organisations were considered as a last resort, and not as examples of real Christianity, they found that individual help from “members of the cloth” was received with the deepest gratitude. “Only those who have tramped the streets hour after hour will ever know the intense leg-weariness which follows and the feeling of hopelessness,” said Mr. Scrimgeour, “and, oh. the joy of clean clothes and a hot bath after the days out on the streets and wharves in all weathers.” Mr. Scrimgeour and his friend have gained valuable knowledge by their experiences. It Is only by getting to know what the men do and what they feel that any definite line of action can be taken to alleviate distress.