PAYMENTS TO RELIEF. WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 8

PAYMENTS TO RELIEF. WORKERS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I have been urged by a wide circle of persons interested to submit to you an abstract showing figures of wage payments for an ordinary week on one of the most' liberally paid relief work jobs in the city area. I am able to vouch for the correctness of the statement and would be glad if you could see your way to publish it:— Number of workers engaged on job, 18; total depending on earnings for job, 78 (made up of 36 adults and 42 juniors); gross wages payments- for week ending November 24. 1935, £32 6s. Less weekly rentals —18 householders at (average) 15s each, £13 10s. Net cash left, £18 16s.

Without making any allowance for gas, lighting, heating, tram fares, repair of footwear, clothing, or other sundry expenses, and assuming that every penny of the net cash is expended on food, this yields (£lB 16s -J- 78 =) 4s lid per individual per week. This sum again allows (4s lid h- 21 =) 2 9-10 d per individual per meal.

It is suggested, Sir, that the most economical expenditure of the 2 9-10 d per head would be Id worth of milk, Id worth of bread, 9-10 d worth of butter, which does not provide half the recognised requirement for a minimum meal. Yet the 18 breadwinners in this group are expected to keep themselves fit for ordinary manual labour!—l am, etc., SECRETARY, Island Bay Relief Workers' Association. November 28.

The death of Father Thomas Walter Price, one of the best-known priests of the Diocese of Christchurch, aged 62, is reported by a Press Association message from Christchurch. Up to two months ago Father Price, who was a member of the Diocesan Council, was in charge of Methven. He had been suffering from an attack of pneumonia.