RELIEF WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 12

RELIEF WORK.

MAJOR PROBLEMS.

PRESENT SYSTEM! CONDEMNED

COMMITTEE TO REPORT.

After deciding that the present system of unemployment relief and the Bending of married men to compulsory camps in the country are unsatisfactory, the conference of local bodies' representatives and others interested in the unemployment problem, held in the Town Hall yesterday, appointed a committee to formulate alternative proposals. The conferenoe, which was convened and presided over by the Mayor, Mr. G. W. Hutchison, discussed many aspects of the unemployment problem, and approved most of the remits submitted. A motion advocating the restoration of trade union conditions, with shortening of hours of labour, was moved by Mr. T. Bloodworth. He claimed that while the schemes had provided employment for originally unemployed men, they had also encouraged unemployment. He referred particularly to tradesmen who, when not engaged in relief work, did work at their trades, thus reducing the demand for those regularly engaged in trades. The motion was carried by a majority. Exploitation Alleged. Moving that all unemployment relief work should be abolished and adequate sustenance provided, Mr. F. E. Lark said the Minister of Employment had stated that relief wages were not meant to provide full sustenance. In reply to a question from the Mayor, Mr. Lark said that he advocated sustenance without work. Some sections were exploiting every avenue possible. Relief workers were doing work at low rates to eke out their relief pay, and so undermining those who were in work. Relief schemes had been exploited, said Mr. Lark, by wealthy companies and by local bodies. On the other hand, the shopkeepers and the businesses dependent on the spending power of people were suffering. Seconding the motion, Mr. Sainsbury said that relief works were the scene of great suffering. Conscientious men of poorer physique than the others on the job, or suffering from malnutrition, wrecked their health trying to keep up the pace set on some jobs. The Mayor felt that the Government had done a correct thing in stipulating that men must give some work in roturn for the sustenance granted. He considered that if there had been no work for the unemployed man the effect would have been much more demoralising. Mr. Guiniven supported this view. "A relief worker to-day is often worse off than the slave of barbarous times," said Mr. E. E. Martin. "The slave was given adequate food, clothing and shelter to conserve his strength for the day's work, while the relief worker does not receive sufficient money to buy those things." Mr. Martin disagreed with the Mayor's suggestion that the dole had demoralised the people of England, who, like the people of New Zealand, would work as well as ever as soon as they had someone big enough to grapple with the problem. Mr. Lark's motion was lost. Subsidy Payments. A motion that provision of finance for the prosecution of State and municipal public works should be undertaken by the Government was moved by the Mayor. Mr. M. J. Coyle said that many of those present seemed to consider the whole question a national matter. He urged that the local bodies make a start on their own and suggested that the local bodies inaugurate works which would be paid for by the bodies and by a Government subsidy, in such a way that men would be getting good wages in return for their labour. Opposition to the suggestion that municipal works should be subsidised out of the unemployment fund was voiced by Mr. J. Purtell. He said the fund amounted annually to about £4,000,000, which was taken out of the people's pockets to sustain those who were unable to obtain work. It was morally wrong to divert it into subsidies when, according to the Government, there was not enough money to pay adequate sustenance to those who needed it. The Mayor's motion was carried. Small Farm Development. The extension of the small farm scheme was advocated by Mr. H. O. Mellsop, president of the Auckland Provincial branch of the Farmers' Union, who claimed that the only salvation for men now on relief work would be to settle them on farms of their own. The world could still take thousands of tons of butter cheaply produced. The Government would have to help them at first, but they would soon be independent. In answer to a question from Archbishop Averill, Mr. Mellsop said that the "small" farms referred to were of 50 acres upward. He agreed with his Grace that the 10 acre farm scheme had been an utter failure. _ All practical farmers had condemned it. Mr. Mellsop's remit was approved. Monetary System, Mr. A. E. Robinson, secretary of the Auckland Provincial executive of the Farmers' Union, moved that support be given to the demand for a Government inquiry into monetary and credit systems. He was supported by the Rev. W. W. Averill, and the motion was carried unanimously. The conference also approved the principle of providing vocational training for men whose vocations are gone and for unemployed youths. After deciding that benefit would be derived from a general planning of industry to secure the most economic use of the man-power and resources of the Dominion, the conference appointed Mr. J. Purtell convener of a committee to go further into the question and report to the next meeting of the conference. It was also decided that local bodies in the metropolitan area should make a survey and compile a list of desirable metropolitan works in the order of their importance.