POSITION OF RELIEF WORKERS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 189, 9 May 1934, Page 4

POSITION OF RELIEF WORKERS

Meeting at Martinborough Dominion Special Service. Martinborough, May 8. Certain grievances, chiefly concerning the allocation of relief money, >yere aired by Martinborough unemployed at a meeting attended by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, member for IVairarapa, the Mayor, Mr. W. B. Martin, and representatives of other interested organisations. Speaking for the unemployed, Mr. R. Shaw stated that the present allocation was insufficient. The average weekly earpings of a single man were 5/-, B class (two children) 14/-, and C class 21/-. It was absolutely impossible, he said, to live under those conditions, and they asked that the member for the district bring pressure on the Unemployment Board to increase their allocation. The provision of meat, boots, and school books were real problems. ( Mr. McLeod said that when he was asked to meet the unemployed, he had gone to Wellington and obtained' the board’s viewpoint of the allocation, and had made further inquiry at the local office. Both the Government and the Unemployment Board recognised- that the winter months were harder, but he could get no ’indication that the allocation would be increased. There was, he observed, a better chance of obtaining foodstuffs in the country than in the city. Several speakers stated that there were cases of hardship, and also made allegations ns to the prejudicial distribution of relief and allegedly wrongful employment under relief schemes. In reply, Mr. McLeod said rumours were rife in the district, but what he wanted were real facts. If there was truth in any such rumours it was the duty of any unemployed person to point out the case to the board. It was stated by Mr. A. B. Martin, chairman of the loeal branch of the Farmers' Union, that members of the union would again give meat this year through the Mayoress’s Committee.