RELIEF SUBSIDY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19063, 27 July 1927, Page 13

RELIEF SUBSIDY.

"DIG AT THE MAYOR."

MB ARCHER AND THE UNEMPLOYED.

"1 realise that utterances made by men like the Rev. Mr Coursey and Mr W. H. Winsor are not always prompted by their zeal for the unemployed," remarked the Mayor (Mr J. K. Archer) yesterday, in the course of a statement regarding remarks passed concerning him at Monday's meeting of the Citizens' Unemployment Committee. Mr Coursey and Mr Winsor had held that it was wrong for the Mayor to state publicly that the City Council was subsidising £1 for £1 all voluntary donations to the unemployment funds. "I do not in any way resent the remarks reported to have been made," said the Mayor. "It is &uch a very fine committee and doing such a fine work that a grouch now and then is probably to be expected. Just now the grouch appears to be by Messrs Coursey and Winsor. A few weeks ago it was the llugby League which provided them with the material; on this occasion it appears to bo the Mayor. Personally I have no objection to their attitude, but it would be a misfortune if anything they said should discourage the public, in a measure, from continuing to subscribe to the funds. "So far as the City Council is concerned, not only is it subsidising the money raised by voluntary subscriptions, £1 for £l, but it is doing that several times over. Never before in the history of Christchureh has there been a Council which has treated the unemployment funds with such magnanimity. To start with, the Council subsidise £IOOO £1 for £l, so that unemployed who were in distress could be given work straight away. The second £IOOO is being provided for in the estimates. At one meeting it authorised work for the unemployed costing over £I2OO, and at another employment costing over £I3OO. At the last meeting the Council set on foot a movement to raise a loan of £25,000 for unemployment work, and it is hoped 'that this fund will carry subsidies of several thousands of pounds. . Money Not to be Handed Over. "It has never been intended by myself, or, as far as I know, by any member of the Council, that the whole of the money being expended on unemployment relief should be handed over to the Citisens' Unemployment Committee. The intention from the first has been that the Council should spend an amount of money which would at least subsidise voluntary subscriptions £1 for £l. "We are doing this," claimed the Mayor. "Such men as the Rev. Mr Coursey and Mr Winsor are always ready to have a dig at the Labour Mayor and Labour Council. "So far as the criticism of myself for not attending the meetings of the committee is concerned, I wish it to be clearly understood that owing to the great pressure of my work, both as minister. of the Colombo street Baptist Church and as Mayor of Ohristchurch, I rigidly and almost without exception take Mondqy as my off day. Apart from th© fortnightly meetings of the City Council, I take engagements for Mondays only undei special circumstances. In previous years the Unemployment' Committee has sat on some other day in the week, and a few weeks ago I requested the committee to oblige me by meeting on another day this year. In its wisdom or unwisdom the committee refused to comply with request. Iliave"never resented '"lis •••'aCTibn, and dp not do so now, •'because I am convinced that, it is quite capable of carrying on in my absence. At the same time it is just as well for the committee and public to . understand that."