RELIEF WORKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 7

RELIEF WORKS.

SOMETHING TO SHOW.

MT. EDEN'S PROGRAMME.

£50,000 SAVING CLAIMED.

While several local bodies throughout Auckland are abolishing relief work under No. 5 scheme the Mount Eden Borough Council anticipates that by completing its extensive sewer construction programme with subsidised relief workers, to make a saving of approximately £00,000. The work will be completed in nine months' time. But sewage is only one of many items of the borough's important works programme.

When the No. 5 scheme came into operation and work had to be found for the unemployed the Mount Eden Borough Council set about drawing up a programme of work which would be an asset to the district. Koads were planned and recreation grounds and the all-

important drainage of the borough, or rather that portion of it which had not been undertaken when the Unemployment Board announced its proposals.

The Mount Eden district differs from most districts in that much of its area is solid rock, and almost any kind of work in the way of improvements necessitates the use of explosives. To-day on the subsidised scheme the council employs 120 men, has its. own carpentry shop, smithy and plant for making concrete pipes." Except in few instances the men were all secured from the ranks of the unemployed —men who were strange to the kind of work they are now doing. Instead of employing the men on two or three days as provided by the Unemployment Board and merely providing the material and supervision, the Mount Eden Council put the men on full time and with the Unemployment Board's subsidy pays them £3 10/ a week, after tax has been deducted. Roads and Tunnels. In a tour of the borough yesterday in company with the Mayor, Mr. T. McNab, and the foreman of works, Mr. J. Wil- j liamson, a "Star" representative was'

taken over splendid roads which have been formed during the past year or so on areas which were almost solid rock, covered with gorse. Through this rock cuttings had to be made, banks cut down, and sewer tunnels constructed. One tunnel was 200 ft long, and the work had to be done by men with no previous experience of it.

In the past 13 months 18,000 ft of sewer through rocky country has been laid, at deptlis varying between sft and lGft, and roads, equal to any subsidiary roads in Auckland, have been formed. Two full-sized football grounds have been made at Nicholson Park, and work is proceeding with the setting out of a sports ground on the site of the old pound at the foot of the mountain. Pipes Made "on the Job." But while the Unemployment Board's subsidy has been the greatest factor in the big saving the council is making, another important one lies in the making of the concrete pipes "on the job.' -

The carpenters make the wooden moulds, but the iron half of the mould, which is used to make the bottom half—the pipes are made in two pieces—is purchased. The concrete is made from metal dust obtained on the jobs, and with cement. The sewage pipes are of three sizes, 9in, 12in and loin. They are laid with a bed of eight inches of concrete, and three inches each side. Much of the stone that has to be excavated is broken up and used in forming, with concrete, the bed on which the pipes are laid.

Some work was done at a cost of supervision only to the council. Unemployed men, who were not fitted to do such heavy work as is entailed in drainage or roadmaking, were put on at metal breaking, and they broke about GOOO yards, all of which went on the roads.

At no time has the council had any labour trouble, and the work of creating permanent assets for the borough proceeds smoothly.