BUCKLAND'S BEACH DOMAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 203, 28 August 1935, Page 19

BUCKLAND'S BEACH DOMAIN.

There are residents of Buckland's Beach and district who arc curious to know under what clause of the Unemployment Act men are detailed to carry out work in the local domain. It is not a new innovation, but has been now n-oing on for many months. Most of the time" of a select number of unemployed men is taken up with attending to the bowling greens. In a sense the Domain is a public place, and an asset to the residents, Tmt it does seem strange that labour paid by the State out of taxation should be assigned to work which is more of a private nature than public. There is much other work in the neighbourhood to be done of a more necessary nature, and that being so, by what arrangement exactly is this undoubted favour bestowed upon the bowlers of Buckland's Beach? RESIDENT. An explanation of the employment of the men in question was given this morning bv Mr. D. Bell, chairman of the Buckland's' Beach Domain Board. Mr. Bell said that the men were engaged on the work to which objection had been taken, that was, work on the bowling green and tennis court, on the days on which they were not working on a regular unemployment scheme. They were paid by the Domain Board from its own funds, funds which had nothing whatever to do "with unemployment funds; and the object was to try and give the men a little more money than they would receive merely from an unemployment scheme. The work was being done with the approval of the Labour Department. The sum of some £40 had been spent by the Domain Board in extra wages for the men in one year.—Ed.