Returned Men Walk Streets Without Work

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 13

Returned Men Walk Streets Without Work

FUND diminishing

SUGGESTION FOR RELIEF

,_ ong those Who are suffering .rress of hardship and hunger Auckland City are some huna. of unemployed returnjd uiers whom the world has badly during the past year or for whom little has been Lr since the return of the troops d the close Of the Great War. SJC Of these men are without UJj ond shelter, a great number wives and families, also "Vsout food. Funds available for ,*h.Tassistance are running low. m en feel their position niv but poverty to the degree of unstlon hat; reduced their pride to h aa extent that charity appears ‘ die light of a God-sent gift rather l „ a n abhorrent spectre denot"iioral destruction. A few of them •7 tried farming—that disastrous of post-war enthusiasm—h Save abandoned their land and framed to the city in search of work. * “ they are just unemployed—mem:v of Auckland's big workless army, nttle tangible assistance can be these men by the Auckland Re«nad Soldiers’ Association, which fulfilled its purpose in caring for “ after their return from Europe nrf Egypt but the Patriotic and War Mief Association is affording judiK, financial aid from a rapidly dim- , h’ng fund. The amount which was allocated for general relief has been ~L,. e d from £36.000 just after the S U, something like £4,000 at the “L-t time, and this sum is being later, up in the relief of necessitous The provincial fund of the association, in which £123,750 is set .aide for sick and wounded soldiers, With their wives and dependants, is teing called upon also by those eliglhle for its reception, but this money einnot be used for the alleviation of ordinary unemployment distress. Returned soldiers are taking their nlace in the long queue waiting for fobs of course, and those who are fit stand an equal chance of being selected for the particular class of work that is offering. Special assistance has been given some of them by lie Patriotic and War Relief Association, however, and a substantial number liava undertaken work for which lit association and the City Council stare the cost. It has been snggested that the aewnulated finances of the Canteen Fund, aggregating something like £;o#i4o6, -should be broken, and about £35,000 of it Bet aside for unemployed returned men. If this were subsidised by the Government to the extent of £ tor £, a substantial and mefnl fund would be established for tie assistance of the most needy. The continued accumulation of the Canteen Fund is resented by seme of those concerned in its operation, the suggestion being that at least some of the money should be released to be used for the purpose for which it was created.