MUST BE OPPOSED

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 61, 5 December 1930, Page 12

MUST BE OPPOSED

14/- a Day Relief Wage RATE TOO ATTRACTIVE Government’s Responsibility Dominion Special Service. Nelson. December .4._ The Government’s action in raising the rate of pay on relief works from 12/- daily to 14/- was roundly condemned at a combined meeting of the Nelson City Council and the Waimea County Council. The County Council refused to participate in the movement to find work for the unemployed, while the rate of pay remained so high as to attract men to the relief works. The Mayor of Nelson and the members of the council to-day waited on a meeting of the Waimea County Council and explained that the position regarding unemployment in the city at present was desperate. There were 128 men on the unemployment bureau’s list, and the officer in charge had no instructions how to deal with them. Over 50 married men in the city were out of work and information was received this morning that 68 more men had been put off at Tophouse, and these would be coming into town. The Government had apparently now handed over the responsibility to the Unemployment Board, and had put off all men on relief works. Last night the City Council passed a resolution authorising the' engineer to start at once on a gas main work. In so doing they were taking a risk, as the Unemployment Board might not pay a subsidy on the work, but some immediate action was Imperative and they had taken 'the risk. The mayor read the Unemployment Board’s decision offering subsidies of £2 for £1 on approved relief works, a condition being that the wages be 14/a day. He asked the Waimea County Council to put some work in hand to help the position. The City Council intended to put on 40 men. People were paying in their unemployment levy and they should get something back. . . . Mr. J. Corder, chairman of the county council, said his council would back upthecity s »P? hc |: tion for a subsidy, but he doubted if they could put any work in hand. it they were to lift a subsidy of £2 for £1 from the Unemployment Board then the county would have to call on the ratepayers to a further extent to supply the county’s share. Many. farmer taxpayers in the county, with poor prices fo? wool and butter-fat, were nearly as badly off as the unemployed at 14/- a Councillor H. Everett said he would be no party to making work for which 14/- a day was paid as relief wages. The county council paid 12/- a day and had good workers. The county could not afford to pay and if the Unemployment Bflara s terms required payment of 14/- a day for inferior men, then he would not support it. Councillor L. Higgins then said that the combined meeting of the city and county councils should oppose the Government on the matter of 14/- a ~ for relief workers. He considered that a large amount of the present unemployment was the direct result of the Government’s action in increasing . wages from 12/- to 14/-. Men left farms to go on to such wages. Relief works were unproductive, and he thought thfe time had come when somebody had to oppose the Government on the point, and he saw no reason why that meeting should not d °After the deputation had retired the following resolution was passed: lliat the county council heartily endorses the application of the City Council for _ a subsidy and expresses regret that its ap plication'should in any way have been hampered by the action of the Unem ployment Board in not granting the subsidy applied for." . ~ Later in the meeting the Waimea Council passed the following further resolution : “That while sympathising witii the Nelson city in its efforts to. relieve unemployment, this council, having regard to that which it considers the unreasonable amount paid to . the unemployed and which in its opinion conduces rather to further unemployment than to its abatement, will not participate in the movement until the wages are so far reduced as not to act as an incentive to men otherwise employed to throw, up their work and go on the relief works. A public meeting at Dovedale passed a resolution protesting against the high rate of wages paid to relief workers. Grants to Employ Farm Labour By Telegrapn -Press Association. Hawera, December 4. A suggestion made by Mr. J. S. Hickey, of Opunake, for the use of the Unemployment Board’s fund for farm labour was endorsed by the South Taranaki executive of the Farmers’ Union to-day. Mr. Hickey proposed that farmers should form groups and obtain from the board grants for the required number of unemployed to provide accommodation and engage men on purely reproductive work He contended the board’s funds would thus help to increase production in the primary industries, which were now faced with the prospect of a considerable decline owing to the inability of farmers to employ labour at the present low prices of produce. The meeting was of opinion that the scheme was highly preferable to relief work usually created for unessential purposes, and decided to recommend the scheme to farmers and place it before the Dominion executive. Additions to Mayor’s Fund The Mayor, Mr. G. A. Troup, has accepted with thanks the offer of the Wellington Symphony Orchestra to give a special concert at the Town Hall on December 16. the whole of the proceeds to be donated to the Mayor’s fund for unemployed relief. . , , , ~ Further donations received toward the.

fund are as follow: — £ s. d. Already acknowledged 624 5 0 Sir Harold and Lady Beauchamp 25 0 0 10 10 0 E. P. Lambert 1 1 0 ,10 0 McDonald and Croker 10 0 Ashford and Batten, Ltd 110 10 0 R 0 10 0 Mr and Mrs J P Firtli 2 2 0 2 2 0 10 10 0 io o o Mr. and Mrs. John O'Shea 5 0 0 Per Messrs. Semple, McKeon and Fraser — James Smith, Ltd. .. 10 0 0 R. Hannah and Co 10 0 0 5 0 0 2 2 0 Jenness and Partridge '2 2 0 J Oliver, Alhambra Hotel .. 10 0 Harry Cane 10 0 110 Total ..£727 6 0