HELPING UNEMPLOYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 11

HELPING UNEMPLOYED.

CENTRAL RELIEF COMMITTEE

BOARD- ATTITUDE RESENTED. PROTEST TO BE MADE. Strong exception to the Unemployment Board's policy of throwing the responsibility for the relief of all but Class A men on the charitable aid boards \va% taken by tlio Auckland Metropolitan Belief Committee at its weekly meeting yesterday afternoon. The Mayor, Mr. G. W. Hutehison, who presided, said he was sure the ratepayers, when they were called upon to bear such heavy taxation to provide funds for the board, had no idea that the board would take up the stand that it was responsible for only the Class A

Tlio number of unemployed in the Auckland district u.as reported to be 7889, of whom 5222 were working under Scheme 5, 1000 single men, and 469 married men, were in camps, and 1198 men still wanted work. The committee bad helped 509 men, and the Labour Department had assisted 395 men before the committee started.

Sir George, Richardson said he thought the committee's task would be 100 large unless they got a subsidy from the Unemployment Board. The Mayor said he would confer on the point with the Minister of Employment, who was coming to Auckland shortly.

Mr.'li. Grieve, in charge of the clothing depot in Hobson Street, suggested that the committee should appoint an officer to inquire into cases so that there should be no "double-banking." He said at one of the camps the men received a subsidy on their pay, making it up to £3 per week, and still some of them come to the depot for clothes and other things. Tlio Mayor of Mount Eden, Mr. T. McNab, mentioned the name of a retired civil servant, and it was decided to ask him to help Mr. Grieve in looking into the bona-iides of the applicants.

There was a discussion as to the scopo of the committee's work, and the Mayor said he thought the needs of the men in the camps had been pretty fairly covered, and the committee could now devote more attention to local relief. At, his suggestion it was agreed that in futuro the committee should devote half its resources to providing necessary clothing for the men in camps and half for the needs of local men.

Mr. Grieve said ho had difficulty in getting free railway carriage for the packages intended for the camps. A private curling firm and a shipping company had carried a package free to one of the country camps, but he could not get the railways to do the same. The committee decided to ask the Government to carry the parcels free to camps served by railway, and to ask the Labour Department to take parcels to suck places as Aka Aka camp.