“ON THE ROAD” FOR THE NEEDY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1006, 24 June 1930, Page 8

“ON THE ROAD ” FOR THE NEEDY

AUCKLAND commercial travellers will soon be “on the road” in a good cause. Saturday has been selected as the day for their annual house-to-house canvass on behalf of the City’s poor and needy, and a strong effort is being made this year to secure from generous citizens clothing and money in record quantities. Without doubt there is particular call for this special appeal. Distress in Auckland today is very real, and no public response would be too great for the requirements of those who distribute food and garments, all the year round, among impoverished homes.

The drive to be held on Saturday could not be in better hands than those of the Auckland Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association. In common with similar associations in other New Zealand centres, this alert body has to its credit an excellent record of social service, and citizens will subscribe cordially to the hope of its members that, on this coming occasion, the most successful efforts of the past will be exceeded. Appropriately enough the collection of money and clothing to provide food and warmth for unfortunate men, women and children synchronises closely with the reopening of Parliament, and if members require any further proof of the need and urge for an unemployment elimination policy that will put an end to temporary palliatives and drib-drab relief methods, they need only direct their attention to the spectacle of busy men willingly sacrificing time and energy in combing a city for cash and kind in an attempt to answer the appeal of the poor. Unfortunately enough, eharit^ 7 does not provide a permanent or satisfactory solution of the unemployment problem, but until New Zealand’s house is put in order, charity is essential. Homes that are destitute of the necessaries of life must be provided.with sufficient to carry on until work is available—until their occiupiers can return to a self-supporting existence. Within practical limits it is impossible to visualise a state of society in which even degrees of poverty would be non-existent, but the present need is by no means limited to those who “are always with us.” The parcels of clothing and bundles of boots collected on Saturday will be welcomed eagerly in households whose members are waiting for productive tasks they are well able to perform.

In the meantime the commercial travellers are organising for a thorough canvass that promises to produce a welcome yield. Aucklanders’invariably have been noted for the freedom of their response to such appeals and, this year, citizens realise the urgency of the need for their help. It is to be hoped sincerely that on Saturday the men “on the road” will fill their capacious vans to overflowing.