POSITION IN MANA WATU

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 132, 2 December 1930, Page 12

POSITION IN MANA WATU

FINANCES LIMITED

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") PALMEESTON N., This Day. Delegates who attended yesterday's conference of local bodies of the Manawatu district, thinking that a solution of the unemployment problem would be found, left disappointed. The primary object of the meeting was to see if advantage could be taken of th,e offer of the Unemployment Board to subsidise work at the. rate of S2 for £1 ii order to tide the workers over the Christmas period. Two hours' deliberation, however, revealed the fact that the only'works of a public naturo that were offering were the sanatorium (Foxton) and Tangimoana beach roads, footpath construction in Otaki Borough, and certain work the Palmerston North Hospital Board could put in hand. All the local bodies complained that their finances were limited, and that they had done all they could. Free grants by the board seemed to be the only way out of the difficulty. The conference terminated with the suggestion that each local body should again review the position and make direct application to the Unemployment Board for the subsidy. Mr. P. J. Small, a member of the board, was present and explained the board's offer to fanners in the matter cf a £ for £ subsidy on all casual labour employed on farms for such work as stumping, draining, cutting noxious weeds, harvesting, etc. The conference urged that the board could practically solve the unemployed problem of the district if it could reopen the flaxmills either by granting a subsidy to the industry or making up

the difference in the wage that the miller could pay and what the Arbitration Court award demanded.