FIT FOR LIGHT WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 208, 2 September 1932, Page 11

FIT FOR LIGHT WORK.

RELIEF WORKERS' CAMP. EXPERIMENT AT PAEROA. MANY FARMERS' APPLICATIONS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) PAEROA, Thursday. During last week the first contingent of relief workers has arrived for the relief camp lately established by the Oliinemuri County Council at the Paeroa racecourse. The men are medically classified as A 2, which means that they are declared fit for camp life and light manual labour. This camp is the first of its kind in the Dominion and it will be watched with keen interest by the Labour Department, for if it is a success the system will prove of great help to the Unemployment Board in providing a means of dealing with a class of men who would otherwise have to be given sustenance without having an opportunity of returning any service to the community. At the beginnig it is proposed to have the men work for the county council on the roads until they can be classified and allocated to work for which they are best suited. They will be drafted later into gangs for work "over the fence" on clearing land and other developmental work. Many farmers have made application to the Paeroa Unemployment Committee for such assistance since the racecourse camp was mooted, but before the scheme can be put in operation many plans have to be made. The work which the men do for farmel's will be paid for, and the county council will be repaid for its expenditure on transportation, the camp, supervision, etc., and there is a system of transportation for the men to and from the camp to be evolved. Mr. W. Marshall, the county chairman, who normally has his hands full with the usual county and borough work, is undertaking all this work. The camp contains at present 10 men, 12 who arrived from Auckland last week and four who were transferred from the Cadman Road camp. It is expected that further drafts : will arrive weekly, till there are 40 men at the racecourse. The accommodation provided in the grandstand is good, and the cook was at one time a chef in one of Auckland's leading hotels. The men will work 40 hours per week, for which single men will be paid 25/, married men with one child 37/0 and married men with two or more children £2.