Pay deductions for Games

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32773, 25 November 1971, Page 1

Pay deductions for Games

If 100,000 of Christchurch’s 103,000 wage-and-salary earners gave an average of 15c a week Iron? their pay-packet to the Commonwealth Games, the Games would benefit by about $BO,OOO a month, the Canterbury Progress League was told last evening.

Mr G. Neaves told the league that about 90 per cent of his fellow workers at Anderson’s, Ltd, engineers, had agreed to have 25c a week taken from their wages to go towards the Games complex at Queen Elizabeth II Park. “I hope this proposition may be taken up by others throughout Canterbury,” the chairman (Mr D. B. Rich) said.

help hold down rates. The league decided to write to bodies and organisations represented on the league urging they support and publicise Mr Neaves’s proposal. It was also suggested that the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) be asked to make the contributions non-taxable, and that the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) be told of the proposal. All knew of the controversy surrounding the Games venues—which had been chosen by an elected body—“and I was fed up with it,” Mr Neaves said, explaining how his idea started. The men at Andersons, Ltd, had talked .about the question ”, . . and now we have decided to do something about it.”

Numerous other speakers congratulated Mr Neaves on his idea, which was described as being “so simple one wonders why nobody thought of it before,” and something that ratepayers and ratepayers’ associations should welcome, as it would