RELIEF WORKS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 51, 7 September 1928, Page 8

RELIEF WORKS

(To the Editor.; Sir, —I Lave just read with interest, and some- degree of astonishment, a report stating that the Main Highways Board had, at the end of June last, a very large credit balance. This being so, what possible excuse can there be lor men engaged on main highways work being classed, as relief workers, and being paid accordingly? I refer particularly to the gangs employed on No. 1 Main Highway between Paekakariki and Waikanae. The work at present consists of draining, subgrading, and metalling—in short, preparation for final surfacing. This cannot, by any means, be called relief work—rather is it much delayed necessary work. One can readily understand new works being opened up at relief rates, but for "preparation" on a main highway—no. Another fact, too, is worthy of note. Out of the twenty-five men engaged on this job, I understand that only three of them were engaged through the Labour Bureau, the remainder being local residents.- Does this look like a genuine'effort to relieve the distress caused by unemployment; that, ol course, is the only acceptable excuse for relief work, with its impossibly low rates of pay. It might be stated in conclusion that from all reports and from personal observation, the Public Works Department expects—and sees that it gets—a lull day's work "from each man.—l am, etc., 4th September. INTERESTED .