OVERHEAD COST OF RELIEF WORK

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21243, 15 August 1934, Page 10

OVERHEAD COST OF RELIEF WORK

CITY COUNCIL'S BEQUEST T® MINISTERS (PRESS ASSOCIATION TKLEGIUM 1 WELLINGTON. August 14. All the members of the Wellington City Council waited on the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) and the Acting-Minister for Employment (the Hon. J. A. Young) to-day, to request that the Unemployment Board should find the necessary money to cover the overhead cost of work on the No. 5 scheme in Wellington. It was stated that the end of the work wa« in sight, and if money was not forthcoming the men would have to be placed on sustenance. The Prime Minister promised to consider the request; but at the same time he and Mr Young drew attention to the favourable financial position o£ the Wellington City Council, and referred to the effect that extra assistance to Wellington would have 011 other local bodies. Mr Forbes said he recognised what the Wellington City Council had done to relieve unemployment. Discussing sustenance and work, he said that, it was much better for a man to be working, and he was in sympathy witn anything that could be done to provide work. It was not, perhaps, the best way to spend money, to take it from the pockets of poor people for the relief of ratepayers. Many districts were not being treated similarly to Wellington. It was not desired to place Wellington or any other local body in an impossible position.