No Relief for Soldiers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 577, 1 February 1929, Page 8

No Relief for Soldiers

Auckland Funds Exhausted IN a short while Mr. S. J. Harrison, general secretary of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, will visit Auckland to.collect evidence about unemployed ex-soldiers and upon the need for establishing veterans’ homes and farm colonies for men who served in the Great War. The most pressing need of ex-servicemen in this district is not the provision of veterans - homes, but the satisfaction ot immediate bread-and-butter requirements. Relief funds are completely exhausted and hundreds are still out of work.

In the collection of evidence for the special commission which the R.S.A. has established to solve the problem of workless soldiers, Mr. Harrison embarks upon a task of unusual difficulty. His investigations are to cover the whole field of unemployment among ex-Diggers, and the causes of their distress are to be classified in seven distinct categories. This information probably will be of great value for reference in the future, and the association will be edified by a knowledge of the general

position. It is the fervent hope of those at the head of soldiers’ relief in this district, however, that the commission will concern itself primarily with the immediate needs of out-of-work returned men and, secondarily, with the causes which led to their presence upon a glutted labour market. In Auckland the plight of returned soldiers is acute. For the past few weeks it has been growing steadily worse, and the relief work offering under the patriotic association’s scheme of assistance has been consistently less. All but three men have been dismissed from the Onehunga park improvement—not because the job is finished, but because the money which made it possible is spent—and now the society is unable further to assist fit returned soldiers. Just on £I,OOO was provided for the Onehunga work. When subsidised by the State at the rate of £ for «£, this amount gave employment to a

large number of men for a time. It was the last effort of the special B fund which had been set aside for assisting fit men out of work. Now the purse is empty, and the patriotic association is able to assist only the sick and wounded and their dependants —thus fulfilling the purpose for which it was originally instituted. IN THE LABOUR QUEUE Much has been done for the relief of distressed ex-servicemen in Auckland. The money spent by the patriotic association from its own coffers and through the National War Funds Council runs into many thousands of pounds, and, moreover, its expenditure was undertaken at a time when the need was urgent and the cause most worthy. The National War Funds Council, which acts virtually as a parent body to the patriotic associations throughout the country, has been generous in its allocations for fit men in distress, but even its purse-strings have to be tightened slightly because of its ultimate obligation to each and every patriotic association in the Dominion should the associations encounter financial difficulties. The Auckland Patriotic Association is not receiving soldiers’ applications for relief, and the men who answered the call to arms in the world battle of 1914-18 are now compelled to take their places in the queue outside the labour employment bureau and chance getting work within the country for which they fought. R.S.A. IS HARD UP The Returned Soldiers’ Association is equally hard up, and is unable to assist its fit unemployed members. A short while ago the trustees of the Canteen Fund allocated £2,000 for distribution throughout New Zealand, but Auckland’s quota was quickly absorbed in giving short-time work to a few men. Now, in the words of the secretary, the association is “broke” so far as unemployed men are concerned, and is compelled to turn away all applicants for relief. Poppy Day funds as well as feeder funds from outside have been combined with what assistance the R.S.A. itself could give, and the money has been spent on work subsidised by the Government. All that is finished now. and unless the National "War Funds Council again opens its treasury, there is little prospect of further special work being provided in the Auckland district for soldiers. The R.S.A. Commission will investigate also the question of veterans’ homes. That, however, is another story. Work for the men is the first essential suggested by those who are watching the soldiers’ interests here. If the commission can establish even some of them in occupations which possess reasonable security it will have laid the foundation for its wider ramifications in the settlement of the general problem—the provision of permanent jobs for all men who served in the Great War.