WIFE AND FAMILY COULD GO AND FISH

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 178, 18 October 1927, Page 9

WIFE AND FAMILY COULD GO AND FISH

DISPENSING RELIEF SOME AWKWARD CASES TTQW to feed the destitute exerXl cises the U nempioymerrt Association just as much as it © xer " cises the poor how to feed selves. There are innumerable sad cases, but some of the men who come for help do not deserve much sympathy as individuals. Take the case of one man in particular, who had several dependants. He came to the association asking tlxat his tram fares to the relief work should be paid and that he should be given a week’s meal tickets. The meal ticket appeal prompted the> association’s “reliever” to ask what about the wife and children, to which the dutiful husband and father replied airily that “they could go and fish for themselves.” So he received no tram fares, either. Yesterday a woman representing a family, victims of unemployment distress, complained to THE SUN of the way she had been treated by the Unemployment Association. She had five children and her husband had had no work for a long time. So she called at the Unemployment Association, where she received two packets of soups, a loaf of bread and an order for Is 6d worth of meat. She stated that she had got no satisfaction and had “had her head snubbed off.” The association explained this morning that in that particular case the husband had called twice, each time in search of relief, though he had been told that if he called on a certain day he would very likely get work to go to. The association’s policy was to encourage men to come for work rather than relief, though in the case of families it gave relief whenever it could. In this case it was not a relief day, but the best supplies that happened to be in the office were given and in consideration of the circumstances the only meat order of the day was given out also. “We don’t hoard things.” said the secretary of the association. "Everyone gets as good as we have, when we have it.”