REDUCED SUSTENANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 225, 22 September 1932, Page 11

REDUCED SUSTENANCE.

CASES OF HARDSHIP. PLIGHT OF A TIMBER WORKER. In referring to sustenance grants this morning Mr. E. J. I'hclan, secretary of the Timber Workers' Union, stated that grave concern was being expressed by many men owing to the reduced sustenance that was being granted, which he said was insufficient to keep them. "It is the men who are too old to be' put on heavy work and for whom nothing is being done that I make an appeal," he said. "A case has come under my notice that I consider particularly hard. It is that of a nian over 00 years of age, and willing to work. He was receiving 1.1/3 per week sustenance allowance in cash and 11/3 by way of orders for rations. This man is now getting only 12/6 a week, and he has a wife and child dependent upoii him. He has been unable to pay electric light or gas charges and has. no means of cooking. Now, oh top of all this, he is threatened with proceedings for the recovery of fines connected with nonpayment of his • unemployment levy, although the levies themselves have been deducted from the pittance he is drawing by way of sustenance grants. "This is only one of many eases I have investigated, but it is one of. the worst, and I have verified the statements lie has made."