MINISTER'S FIGURES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 10

MINISTER'S FIGURES

TOTAL ON PUBLIC WORKS

According to a statement by the Minister of Public Works (tho Hon. E. A. Kansom), -1700 unemployed workers have been sent to public works, including railway works, since the present Government assumed office. The total number employed as at 27th April was 13,850, as compared with 11,038 on 2Sth April, 1325. Subsidies promised to local bodies for Hi - current financial year totalled £107,750 of which £-10,601 has been approved since the present Government came into power. As an indication of the Government's activities, the Minister said the Public Works Department was placing 200 men in Auckland, whilo the For° cstry Department was taking on 50 men immediately and a further "00 men shortly. In Wangiiiiui arraiifc;ments wero being made to absorb twenty-five men immediately ;>n tho Wanganui River left bank road. The Prime Minister, when in Christeliureh arranged for the placing of 250 men! and tho Forestry Department would be absorbing there another 200 about tho middle of next month Towards the end of Juno the Forestry Department would be able to place 100 men in Dunedin. Arrangements had been uiado for the placin t of 24 men on public works in Invercargill. j The registrations, the Minister continued, showed a total of 521 unemployed in Wellington. Including -19(5 local body employees, there wero 1755 men employed on public works in (.lie Wellington district. Since the prosent Government assumed office approximately 305 had been provided with employment in (he district including a few sent to Nelson. "Tho extent of tho distress in Hie city, mentioned at yesterday's mating of the unemployed, was exemplified by the number who called :j| th,. Trades Hall this morning," said Mr: W ni-u-u-Icy, secretary of "the Unemployed Committee, to a "Post" reporter to-day Mr. Bromley said that some men had called this morning for meals. ''liey had evidently misunderstood his .statement made at the mooting yesterday and thought, that he, instead ' of tho Charitable Aid Board, could supply the meals. A meeting of unemployed is called forMonday in the Trades Hall at 11.30 a.m.