DOLE PAYMENTS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11046, 21 February 1933, Page 3

DOLE PAYMENTS

Modified System May Be Instituted HINT BY MINISTER. An indication that a modified system of dole payments might have to be instituted by the Unemployment Board for men for whom work could not be found in the city or the country was given by the Minister for Employment (the Hon. Adam Hamilton), in an interview at Wellington a" few days ag0 ' in which he made a reply to the persistent arguments that the Board’s No. 5 Scheme ehould be superseded by the dole system. “The Unemployment Board is giving much thought to the position in the four main cities, where it is admitted that the useful work can be carried out without much capital expenditure is coming to an end,” said the Minister. “It may so happen that works of national value will have to be started in the country as public works to accommodate some of the unemployed men from the . c j tiee> a nd it is not outside the -pale of possibility that some modified system of dole payments may require to be instituted for those for whom work cannot be provided in the city or in the country. It is obvious, however, that if we travel along that line the dole payments can not be maintained at the level at present operating where work is performed, or otherwise the work system, even in the country, would very likely break down.” : ; Apart from the four main centres, he continued, not much difficulty was being experienced in directing relief labour to useful and: reproductive work. Criticisms of Scheme No. 5 were coming mainly from the large centres and there was an ; unfortunate tendency to judge the operations of the scheme, nationally, on .local ■ experience, and even when doing this the critics were t not , always fair. The Minister instanced the Eastbourne sewerage and water works being carried out with Scheme No. 5 labour. The borough was making up the difference to standard wages, but the work could not have proceeded at this time had it not been for the assistance rendered by the Unemployment Board, in supplying unemployed labour and meeting part of the wages. Yet within sight of this work responsible citizens were suggesting that no further work should be carried out with unemployed labour, and that the dole system should be Introduced to take its place. The Unemployment Board was gathering just now details of re- ’ productive work that,Was at present being—and had been—undertaken with Scheme No. 5 labour, and he hoped shortly to be in a position to make a detailed statement. In the Meantime, he thought that hasty conelusions in the matter of substituting the dole system for Scheme No. 5: as a general policy should be avoided, “In contradistinction to some city experience with Scheme No. 5 labour,'’ said Mr Hamilton, “I should like to quote the experience of a y- North Island county. In this county there has been an average of 311 registered unemployed during eighteen months. The Board employed a supervisor as an experiment to organise and supervise work carried out under the ‘over the fence’ scheme, a section of ■ The result to' .date is. as 39,953 acres fd{-scrub &uve been cut, 2275 1 acres have- been cleared of buahTl23s acrds'havet been cleared of blackberry, *24 acres have been cleared of rushes, six acres have been cleared of stumps, 200 acres have

been cleared of thistles, 30 chains of tram-lings have been.laid, 60° chains of fencing have been carried out, 364 chains of drains have been completed, and 1200 yards of metal, have ’ been .quarried. “ “Towards the carrying out of this work the supervisor, has secured from local farmers contributions totalling £4563. The work has been carried out .under small contracts by / Scheme No. 5 workers, and 1 practically the whole of the unemployed in ’ that district are carrying out this type of work .on a contract basis, returning to them the amount they would receive if paid daily at Scheme No. 6 rates.” .