REFUSED AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 90, 13 October 1931, Page 10

REFUSED AGAIN

GRANT FOR DISTRESS

WHAT A COUNCIL CANNOT DO

A deputation of two, Messrs. Boy and Scoringe, from the Unemployed Workers' Committee, waited upon the Petone Borough Council last night with the request that the recent decision of the Finance Committee of the council not to make a further grant for the relief of distress be reconsidered. In asking for another grant, Mi1. Eoy said that the necessity for one was even greater now than it had been when the first grant was made. He knew that it would bo difficult, but these were difficult times. It was pointed out by councillors that the council could not exceed £.250 per annum in unauthorised expenditure; £200 of this had been given to the Benevolent Committee earlier in the year and the remaining £50 was almost all expended. The council had no authority to spend more. Mr. Koy suggested that as times were hard it might be possible to obtain authority to spend more. The Mayor (Mr. D. M'Kenzie) expressed tho o.pinioji that the Government was not doing enough to assist the unemployed. It would have to do more. "We know you are in great distress and you need relief. We, as a local body, have reached tho end of our tether. . . I consider the council has been very generous to the unemployed. "We know we must look after tho unemployed up to a point, and we have been doing that," he said. Councillor R. W. Toomath said that if the council made a grant in excess o£ its unauthorised expenditure, and the Auditor-General refused t sanction the payment, the councillors would be jversonally liable for the amount. "The council has acted very fairly and justly towards us throughout," said Mr. Roy. He thought,, however, that the council should obtain permission to make another grant. "We havo deputations here objecting that we spend too much money," •remarked the Mayor. The deputation having withdrawn, Councillor A. Seholefield moved that tho Finance Committee review the position, and that permission be sought from the Government to exceed £250 in ■unauthorised expenditure. The distress in the town, he said, particularly affected young children, who were not getting proper nourishment. The motion lapsed for want of a »cconder. Councillor Toomath said that to carry out Councillor Scholeflcld's ideas a special Bill would have to be passed, and he did not think a proposal to extend the unauthorised expenditure would be favourably received in Parliament, especially as the Petone borough was one of the few that had already made a cash grant for tho relief of distress. The council, by seeking to exceed its unauthorised expenditure to make another grant would be establishing a dangerous precedent and taking up the burden which the Unemployment Board had been formed to bear. It was decided to inform the deputation that nothing could be done.