CARRYING ON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 157, 6 July 1931, Page 7

CARRYING ON.

WORK OH RELIEF SCHEMA

HITCH XW WAITEM&ESt COtTNTY,

DIFFICULTY OVER ALLOCATIOJFS.

By adopting jationing In a. modified form, standing down men a week earlier than customary, and not engaging single men, local bodies in the Auckland district, ,with the exception of the Waitemata County Council, were aWe to carry on unemployment scheme five this morning with slightly reduced grants. Complications arose in the case of the Walfcemata Council owing to the widely,-scat-tered nature of the county area,' but efforts are being made to adjust this position by to-morrow morning. Meanwhile 800 men are without employment.

"From the relief works point of view we are the hardest local body iu the Auckland district to work," said Mr. W. A. Bishop, chairman of the Waitemata County Council, in discussing, the difficulties with which local bodies were faced in endeavouring to'fall in with the frequent variations made to allocations for relief. "This fact will;be readily appreciated when I point out that the county consists of C3O square miles, and in 11 ridings it has 13 offices and 16 overseers attending to relief works. Arrangements for the employment of the men cannot, therefore, be made at a moment's notice. We should be advised of our allocations several weeks ahead, so that-we amounts , out to the .various districts where assistance. is required. If tho Unemployment Board ca.nnot do that, then, from our point of view, scheme five is unworkable, and we will simply have to drop it. The administration of the scheme alone is costing us quite a lot of. money, and some of the work that has been put in hand is work that need not have been carried out for another ten. years. Had we not responded to the appeal to give work .where possible, a good deal of the work could have been postponed and been. carried out when necessary by contract the present cost.

"At the inception of scheme five, the council employed nearly 1000 men, many of whom were recruited from Auckland city and suburbs. Now that our quota of money has been reduced we would be quite satisfied if we were allowed to give preference to our own ratepayers, many of whom are up against it and are making an effort to pay- their rates by instalments. According to the Labour Department, however, that cannot be done. If we have to reduce the number of men we employ, I personally consider that our first duty is to local men. Unless we are allowed to give assistance- in this direction, I would sooner see the scheme closed, down, or else very heavily curtailed. We are quite prepared tp keep men on, however, if we can get the 'money to engage them. It is not we who are putting off men, but the. Unemployment Board. Owing to the difficulty that has arisen over apportioning lvork in each, riding, there will be no work'to-day for approximately 800 men, about 600 of whom belong to the city, but we are trying to adjust the position and will start work again to-morrow if possible." The Mayor of New Lynn, Mr. George Laweqn, said there were sufficient funds available to his council this morning to enable it to put on over 200 men, the same number as last week. At Mount Eden it was found necessary to ration work to a small degree by giving men entitled to three days' work only 2£ days' employment thie week. ■ ; Advice of a share of the extra grant of £1345 made available toy the' Unemployment Board for this week was not received by the Onehunga Borough Council, with the result that 130 single men were required to stand down. ■ Other local bodies are meeting the position' in various ways and are endeavouring to see that each man receives his full share of work during r the monthly period.