NOVEL PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 75, 30 March 1939, Page 20

NOVEL PLAN.

PURCHASE OF HOTEL. TRAINING DOMESTICS. PROPOSAL TO GOVERNMENT, (From Our Own Correspondent.) ! SYDNEY, March 24. | A deputation representing restaurant, residential, trades' union, brewery and other interests this week invited the State Treasurer (Mr. Mair) to take over a large country hotel a« part of the scheme for the training of domestics. ! I liey said that cooks, housemaids, j waitresses and waiters were ait re- I quired and urged the establishment of j training schools in Sydney and the j larger country centres. Thev suggested I that tlie Government should purchase ! a country hotel, staff it with em- , ployees from these State domestic j training schools and run the business j on prolit-mnking lines. ! When Mr. Mair inquired what fin- j ancial assistance the liquor trade would j give for such a scheme, the president of the I'.Tj.Y.A. (Mr. Connolly) said ! that a trust fund of £500,000, which ! had been contributed bv the trade, j eouhl be drawn upon t<« the extent of ' £.">O,OOO. The fund was made up of a : three per cent levy upon hotel owners | and licensees for the purpose of coin- ; pensating those who surrendered their i licenses after the setting up of the j Licenses deduction Board in 1919, and : Mr. Connolly incidentally charged the ■ Oovernment with having transferred j f2.50.0n0 out of this fund to Consoli- I dated Revenue. Mr. Mair did not go into 1 this issue but promised to submit the ! deputation's proposals to Cabinet. | It is unlikely, however, that the Oovernment will do anything about it as most of its energies and financial : resources for the next three years are ' now almost certain to be thrown into rail wnv. road, aerodrome and other works, costing upwards of £12.000.000, which the Commonwealth Oovernment has classed as works of defence value. At the moment the only uncertainty about this defence works' programme, is how it will be financed. The Prime Minister (Mr. Lyons) has stated that the Commonwealth Ooverninent's financial resources will be fullv extended by its three year defence programme. which is likely to cost £70.000.000 or more, rather than the final esti- ' mate of C 03.000.000. and that the States will be required to finance works in their territory which have been j Tied as having defence value. I The States, however, particularly New South Wales, are pressing the Common- ' wealth for an extension of finance so j that these works can be undertaken as j additional to their own ordinary works j programmes. They argue that the prime defence need for Australia is a [ larger population and fuller exploitation | of its resources, so as to justify itself in i the eyes of the world, and that if j finance is withdrawn from ordinary j developmental works, and devoted ex- 1 elusively to strictly defence works, the development of Australia will meantime come to a halt. I