BOROUGH AFFAIRS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 110, 19 February 1935, Page 3

BOROUGH AFFAIRS

UNEMPLOYMENT ALLOCATIONS. HIGHER SCALE ASKED FOR. COUNCIL SUPPORTS WORKERS. The Ashburton Borough Council met last evening, when there were present the Mayor (Mr W. H. Woods), Messrs W. H. Handle, J. T. Pratley, E. Buchanan, E. H. Orr, R. Kerr, H. R, C. McElrea, P. J. E. Smallbone and Dr. J. Connor.

The financial statement showed that revenue since the previous meeting had totalled £319 l'6s lOd, the chief item* being rates £-52 19s 8d (current), £l2 8s Id (arrears), rents £33 5s 6d, water supply £34 16s lOd, abattoir fees £B3 18s sd, licenses £l7 8s 2d. The Ashburton County Council wrote that it had further considered the question of the cost of the cleaning of the water channels on Walnut Avenue, and had decided to pay the Bor•ough Council's fee of £3 a year. It was agreed to leave the drawing up of the agreement in the hands of the Mayor and the Town Clerk. Captain N. E. Bicknell, of the Salvation Army, wrote inviting members of the Council to attend at the publio welcome to be tendered to Commissioner and Mrs Adams at the Army Hall, on Wednesday, February 27. ; The invitation was accepted. The Ashburton Volunteer Eire Brigade forwarded a copy of its balancesheet and notified the election of officers at the recent annual meeting. The name of Mr S. V. Johnston was submitted as a new member.

The new member was approved. The Ashburton Club and M.S.A. applied for a parking-place in the vicinity of the Diill Shed, on March 5, when a banquet would be held to celebrate the jubilee of the club. The application was left in the hands of the Inspector. On behalf of the unemployed men in Ashburton, Mr H. A. Knight (president of the Relief Workers' Union) wrote seeking the Council's support to the appeal being made to the Unemployment Board for an increase in the Ashburton allocations up to the level of the allocations for the, metropolitan areas, plus the 10s they were asking for. The writer added that the men felt that the time had arrived when a thorough overhaul of the position of the unemployed was necessary. There were cases where families wero still living under semi-starvation conditions. it was stated that the city scale was 6s a week higher than that at Ashburton. ; . Mr McElrea said that a strain ot increasing intensity was being put or. >the world and the cure for it would mean a very drastic change in the lite of the. nations. It was hard to understand why there should be a differentiation in the scale in different localities. Public body men should be given an opportunity of speaking with the Unemployment Board officers on aspects of the problem instead ot the deputation to the Board chairman recentlv being a Star Chamber affair. He moved that the Council support the •request. , Mr Kerr said he had great pleasure in seconding the motion. Statistics showed that the cost of living in country centres was in most cases greater than it was in the cities and the Board should take that into consideration when it was making its allocations Mr Pratley said the Board should be given an emphatic representation on the question Equality should count wherever the relief men were living The Mayor said it had been put to the Prime Minister himself in a strong, if not an angry, manner some time ago, but nothing had been done. Ashburton had taken exception to the tower scale since the first al ocation were made. It'had been stated that the cities would have to suffei a decrease if the smaller districts were to receive a larger allowance, and the l-Sswbile tiiey wanted the country centres to receive more, were not pienared to take a decrease. _ 1 Tl.o motion was carried without opposition. Domain Board. Sitting as a Domain Board the Council received the report o the Curator on work carried out bj Ins staff' in the past two weeks. Cemetery Board. Sitting as a Cemetery Board, the Council received the financial ment, which showed a credit of £6 lis. Receipt, since the previous meeting had totalled £4.