UNEMPLOYED RELIEF

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 5

UNEMPLOYED RELIEF

Rationing of Work

A. shortage of funds has compelled the Unemployment Committees in Lower Hutt and Petone to curtail the days of employment for relief .workers. , For the week ending September 5 the Petone Unemployment Committee estimated for £672. The amount granted by the Unemployment Board is only * • This being so, the committee has decided to reduce the four-day men to three days, the three-day men to two days and a halt, and the two-day, or single, men to one dav and a half. This does not make any provision for about twenty-five men who have qualified for work., It is impossible to give them work this week. On the Petone unemployment relief work this week there are 150> three-day men, 80 four-day men, and 248 single men! a total 0f.47’8 men. Altogether there are '737 men on the- books registered as unemployed. Of these.67o.are eligible for en 'ro°'givTfull relief for the week ending September 12, about £lll7 will be required. The amount the committee will receive will, however, be about £350 short. The estimates were based on a probable addition to the .registrations of about twenty men a . week. That number been exceeded; the weekly registrations averaging about twenty-five. Tins is due to the fact that scarcely any men are obtaining private employment, and men are continuing to be put off from the Hutt railway workshops. In Lower Hutt the single men have not yet been touched. For this week, however, the four-day men have been reduced to three days and a half, the three-day men to two days, and the two-day (or single) men remain as they are. registrations, too, are in excess of Estimates at Lower Hutt. The committee wanted £B6O for this week, and the same amount for next week, lhe Unemployment Board has granted £7OB for each week. _____—