THE RAINY DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1922, Page 6

THE RAINY DAY.

NOT PROVIDED FOR. “GAMBLING AND ABSURD LIVING.” “There is one phase of the unemployment question,” declared Mr. E. Whitcombe at the Wellington Diocesan Synod, “which has not been touched on, and which is not very largely thought of. The country has not yet recovered from the financial crash brought on by the whole of the people in New Zealand, almost without exception, gambling and living absurdly, in utter forgetfulness of the hard times to follow .... Are there any farmers, I ask, who have lived during the last two years except on capital saved in .previous years. I don’t know that there are. lam not saying that every working man should have saved enough against the rainy day, but I know that the tendency of the members of the labor unions has been not to save a farthing. The old remark about saving up for a rainy day seems to have gone from this country. It is up to all to help during such a time as the present, and prevent starvation and other troubles.”

There was no work on the waterfront, continued Mr. Whitcombe. Why? Half the reason was that the men of Wellington on the waterfront would not work on the wharves. They sometimes took three times as long as formerly to load a vessel. They drew their pay, but would not load the ships. “We want to stir each other up,” he said, in conclusion. “and do what we can to relieve this unemployment-trouble.”