OF MATERIAL VALUE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1931, Page 14

OF MATERIAL VALUE

GOOD FROM RELIEF WORKS

BENEFITS SOON APPARENT

The claim that the work done under the No. 5 Unemployment Scheme has been useless and uneconomic and there* fore'a waste-'of publip moneys apart from putting' some money into the pockets of the unemployed is briefly commented on by. the old Unemployment Board in a report presented in the House of Representatives yesterday. ', "Work not scheduled for this or next' year," the re-port states, "may not be of immediate economic value, but that . does not mean it is necessarily, useless. If local bodies have exercised a wise discretion in the selection .of relief work, such, work will be of material value in the future, and the results will undoubtedly be reflected in reduced expenditure by the local .bodies in later years, thus benefiting' -the. ratepayers, and citizens generally. Had local bodies been able to carry out maintenance and other ordinary work at the cost of'the Unemployment Board, the local bodies could have discharged their permanent employees and the board would have been accepting practically the1 full', responsibility for all local body'w.ork in the Dominion anfl-v would not hare found the extra work required for the legitimate unemployed." " ■ Tie report quotes a letter of appreciation of. th'e-board's schemes from the president of the .Municipal Association, Mr. T. Jackson. In the course of' his letter Mr. Jackson,states that the No. 5 scheme has enabled local, bodies to place large numbers ,of unomplpyed on useful, and'permanent- t| works within easy, reach:' of. their/ own homes, and that the operation/of tlie. schemes' has conferred great-benefits upon the various loed.l authorities. ••'

"Apart from the benefit to many of the unemployed through being placed in varying-periods of continuous" employment on-farms instead of obtaining rationed work in or near the towns," the report remarks that "the value of these schemes to the farmers can hardly be overestimated. The board's subsidy ■has enabled hundreds of . farmers to. take on additional-labour during;the winter months, and thus complete a great deal of reproductive work which in most cases they could not afford to have done at their own expense. During the approaching production season the benefit of this work should be apparent." "