VALUABLE WORK

Evening Post, Issue 60, 11 March 1936, Page 10

VALUABLE WORK

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l would like to draw attention through your columns to two of the relief works being carried but in the Hutt Valley under the; supervision of the Public Works Department, the Gracefleld job of filling in sections and thereby bringing them up to the road level, and the Normandale Hill job of clearing and burning gorse. At Gracefleld, I am informed, work has been in progress about three years, and tHe number of men employed has seldom been under 100 per week, and lately, has)reached 200----bdd per week. This, of course, does not mean that these men are employed a full week of five and a half days. I understand that they are classified, and work so many hours each week. One must admit .that the filling in of these sections*will no doubt make them more valuable. But one wonders what their selling price would have to be to render a fair return on the money allocated to this job. At Normandale Hill, the men work so many ,hours per week, according to their class, the same as at Gracefleld. and the average number employed teethe week is, I believe, about eighty. They are engaged on grubbing .arid burning gorse. So well has the work been carried out'l that acres of farm lands that eighteen months, .to-two years ago grew nothing but gorse have now been turned into good grazing country. The greater part of the land cleared would be ploughable with a hillside plough, and that which is not could be planted with plantations of pines, and provided that the young trees were properly cared for > they would smother,the gorse, and provide shelter for stocks as they grew. One wonders why the neighbouring, farmera on Normandale have not approached Mr. Semple and arranged to; have the good work of clearing gorse carried out on their farms as well. Some of the farms are' well covered with gorse. In this work of .clearing the gorse from the farms the Unemployment Board can justly say that the money laid out in supervision and wages has not been wasted. The money allocated to the Gracefield job would have shown a far better return if it had' been allocated to the Normandale job to help farmers in clearing their land of gorse and ragwort. I understand that this job will be closing down in a fortnight or three weeks. This seems a pity, as there are still many acres of valuable farm land under gorse to be cleared.—l am, etc., / ..-"..' "■■