“DOLE” ABUSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1076, 13 September 1930, Page 1

“DOLE” ABUSED

“HORDES OF OFFICIALS CONTROL SYSTEM” POSITION IN ENGLAND People in England go to collect the "dole” in motor-cars, according to Major G. H. W. Bayley, a recent arrival in New Zealand. Although in his opinion the idea of the "dole” was a good one, Major Bayley said that a good deal of abuse was being carried on in connection with it. Its misapplication was roundly condemned at Home. The initial idea of the “dole” as a means of relieving distress and hardship caused through unemployment was a sound one, but under the present system it could be abused by more or less unscrupulous people. One of the most fruitful sources of its misapplication, he added, rose from the condition under which the "dole” was obtainable by those out of work. Many found employment for a few months only and then abandoned it for the easier course of collecting without working. Even young people, said Major Bayley, stayed in their jobs for six months or until they qualified for the "dole,” and then relinquished their work without a qualm. Another aspect of the "dole” system which could be criticised severely was the fact that the system at present was run by "hordes and hordes” of officials. Unemployment was of course bad, the total running now to 1,250,000, but the outlook was not at all as cheerless as many tried to make out. Women, thought Major Bayley, were responsible for a good deal of unemployment. Where in former years women would have kept to a domestic life they were now in direct competition with men in a wide range of employment. This was no new idea of course, said Major Bayley, but it struck one forcibly in England. Major Bayley himself, on his visit to the Dominion, intends settling here, probably as a dairy-farmer. For 28£ years he was in the mounted branch of the Royal Artillery, and was engaged in the Sierra Leone Expedition and the South African War. He commanded a battery of artillery in France in 1914, and can lay claim therefore as one of the "Old Contempt ibles.” He was wounded early in the war. however, and retired eventually in 1920, since when he has lived in England. Major Bayley is accompanied by his wife, son and daughter.