Patea people to get Government aid

Press, 28 August 1982, Page 12

Patea people to get Government aid

PA Wellington Government departments will make various forms of aid available to Patea people displaced by the imminent closing of the freezing works in the district. The Minister of . Social Welfare, Mr Young, whose Waitotara electorate includes Patea, has said that the Labour Department and the Housing Corporation had agreed on measures to help the more than 500 people who would eventually lose their jobs. About 300 public sector

jobs had been organised by the Labour Department under the subsidised jobs scheme and the department was also looking closely at the possibility of private sector job-creation programmes in the district. A Social Welfare Department directory will be prepared and various forms of assistance will be made available to workers wanting to move to other centres. The aid will include fares and expenses under certain circumstances, and second loan entitlements from the

Housing Corporation and the, Maori Affairs Department.. Mr Young said that thd' Government was also involved in funding various feasibility studies both forthe works and for other! industries in Patea. He said that the help, offered Patea was the “most: comprehensive set Of measures ever to assist a, town in this situation.” “We are determined thdj the effect of the freezing' works closing on the indivi-, dual will as far as possible be mitigated,” he said.