RELIEF EMPLOYMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 262, 4 November 1932, Page 3

RELIEF EMPLOYMENT.

EXISTING SCHEMES IN DANGER REGISTRATIONS NOT PALLING. ALLOCATIONS TO BE REDUCED. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. There is every reason to believe that unless definite constructive measures are promptly taken the Unemployment Board's schemes for the relief of the workless will be in danger of collapsing under their own weight. Contrary to expectations and estimates, the arrival of spring has seen no decline in registrations—in fact the last official figures showed a slight increase —and seasonal occupations and private employers are not absorbing men to the extent anticipated. It has already been foreshadowed that the board, despite the apparent satisfactory state of its fund, as disclosed in the recent Ministerial survey, cannot maintain the rate, of expenditure it was forced to adopt during the winter, and that a reduction in allocations is inevitable during the summer. The opinion in official quarters is that something more than the lowering of expenditure is essential if the fund is to be kept stable, and if the best possible is to be done for the unemployed, and il is cxpccted that at an early date details will be announced of fresh proposals for arresting the drift. On this problem long hours of consideration and analysis have been sp?nt by Mr. Coates, and it is understood that he is patting the final touches to plans which it is believed will stem the tide of uncertainty and doubt. It is gathered that the plans relate almost exclusively to additional land settlement.