£25,000 MORE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20103, 5 December 1930, Page 14

£25,000 MORE.

RELIEF OVER HOLIDAY PERIOD. SUBSIDY ON WAGES ONLY. • . (press association telegram.) WELLINGTON, December 4. With the approval of tho Minister for Finance, the Unemployment Board decided to-niglit to make a further £25,000 available by wav of subsidy on wages only as a special measure f'r the relief of distress during the Christmas period. The amount voted tonight will be allocated to local committees whose formation was urged by the Board several days ago. Special conditions are attached to tho granting of subsidies in the present instance, which the Board has called Scheme No.. 2. Subsidies will be granted on wages only m this instance, the rate being & for & and the work undertaken for which the subsidy is given must be finished by the end of January. The rate of pay will bo mutually arranged between employer and employee, and tho subcidy will not exceed 7s per day for tho following classes of work: — Country Work. (1) Improvements to and main tenance of land by way of stone clearing, stumping, draining, fencing, rush grubbing, and burning gorse and noxious weeds, grubbing or cutting or spraying, 3crub cutting, and work of a similar nature. (2) Harvesting. (3) Ploughing and harrowing after clearing only. City, Town, and Borough Work. Gardening, wood chopping, section clearing, sub-soil drainage, trenching and clerical work. Several points are enumerated b> the Board in the resolution agreeing to granting this £25,000 in subsidies on wages only. In accordance with powers contained in the Act relating to the subsidiary functions of the Board, special local committees will be appointed wherever possible. Tho Act states that the Board shall define the powers of these committees, and that the members of them shall not receive any remuneration from the Board's funds. The second point made is that these local committees shall notify citizens in their districts of work of the class approved and the terms of the subsidy. Where they exist labour exchanges are to act in conjunction with the local committees of members which will satisfy themselves that the proposed employee is registered under the Act. The labour exchanges or the local committee must issue a card to the employer stating the maximum subsidy authorised, and advising him of the names and particulars of the men sent to him for the work offering. The employer will also sign a card for identification purposes. The employer will sign a card after the work is finished signifying that he has paid the employee a certain sum. The employee will then, in accordance with the stipulation of the Board, take the card to the executive of the local committee, one of whom shall be a Government officer approved by the Unemployment Commissioner. This officer will make out a voucher for the subsidy due and certify it correct for payment by the local post office as well as attaching the original card. The amounts to be allocated to each local committee are to be approved by the Minister for Finance.

Nature of Subsidies. Tho Board urges that local committees for the carrying out of this second scheme should be formed at once, so that the work may be scheduled and men out of work found jobs over the holiday period. It is emphasised that tho wages subsidy will be granted only for work that would not otherwise be undertaken, and not for that which would be carried out in the ordinary course of industry. For instance, the Board will not subsidise an employee to keep one of his clerks in a job he already holds. However, it will consider a wages subsidy if the employer is prepared to take on a clerk for a limited period and so create a position that %vould not otherwise be filled. Subsidies will be allocated in districts where unemployment is acute, and each case will be considered on its merits. Those men who desire to find work under this scheme must be registered at a Government Labour Bureau. The Board states that it must have some check on the men whom it proposes to assist, and this check can only be had by seeing that the men who apply for assistance are duly registered at a recognised bureau.

An increase of 636 is recorded this week in the registered unemployed making a total of 8874.