FACE THE FACTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 161, 28 September 1927, Page 8

FACE THE FACTS

Sir,— Tul St c.?u ek aa article appeared in THE SUN expressing the opinion of one of Auckland’s most prominent social workers, Major Gordon, who said that the tragic social conditions that exist in Auckland should not be made known to the general public. Major ePiri att acked the attitude of THE SUN in sending a reporter to investigate, first-hand, the problem that faces hundreds of the less fortunate of Auckland s unemployed, saying that 1 .*J ot °t these people was hard enough without being brought under the notice of the public. This criticism is absolutely ungrounded, for in the first place no names were mentioned, and, again, help was forthcoming for practically every case. However, this opens up an important question. How much permanent goocl can be done by merely r t lievi ?g distress, without determined effort being made to discover and to remove the cause of such distress 0 If social workers were able to supply all the need —which they can never do is there any guarantee that the same position, with all its horror, will not recur, and continue to recur, until Doomsday? The causes of unemployment and distress in a country like this are surely not so far removed as to render it impossible to root them out, and in the face of this fact the truth concerning the appalling conditions that exist should be blazed abroad until public conscience is aroused, and the attention demanded of every public man and every nublic body. The public does not know, and is therefore no; alarmed, at such conditions as wera revealed by the visit of your reporter to the homes of the people. It is generally acknowledged