OFFICIAL REPLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 165, 14 July 1932, Page 8

OFFICIAL REPLY.

TAKAPUNA STATEMENTS INCORRECT.

. Mr. "W. Slaughter, officer in charge of unemployment in the Auckland province, said the Department's inquiry officers had to ask relief workers who were to be sent to camp, questions in connection with either wives and families in order that allocations could be provided for them while the breadwinner was in the country. The allocation orders were forwarded to the local authorities employing the men, and the wives were ablo to draw the money at the Labour Department's office at the same time as the men received their share in camp. No deduction was made for postage or any other charge. Some of the men in camp receiving £2 10/ a week were allocating £2 a week to their wives. "Men are not asked to pay their own fares to camp," said Mr. Slaughter, "and they do not work a 44-hour week. The camp week is 40 hours, and any time worked in excess of that amount is put to their credit as a reserve against wet days or other contingencies. The local authorities pay the men's fares to camp. As far as Waitomo is concerned extensive improvements works are being undertaken on the farms of the district TSy the County Council, the landowners paying on a deferred system. In addition there is a good deal of work being done in the direction of constructing access roads to bring in additional dairy land. The Department has already sent 40 Auckland men to the district but more are required. "The money is noj; all spent in the country districts at the expense of the towns and cities," said Mr. Slaughter. "In many cases the men's allocations to their families exceed in the aggregate what the same men would have to spend at home if they were merely earning relief pay under No. 5 scheme. The unemployed fund is a Dominion fund and must he so expended as to achieve the maximum benefit from the Dominion standpoint. The work done in the country is calculated to increase primary production, which is an absolute necessity.

"In respect to the charge made that the best workers are being taken for the camps I feel sure that no local body desires to exploit the unemployed or to make a. profit out of them. Tf the workers remaining in the metropolitan areas are not class Al it must not he forgotten that all the local body has to provide is the cost of insurance, tools and supervision. It is necessary to take the men who are the fittest for camp life. The Farmers' Union has made no complaint against the policy of assisting primary production by the transfer of men from the city to the country."