"NOT A FAIR RETURN"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 15, 18 July 1939, Page 15

"NOT A FAIR RETURN"

JOHNSONVILLE WORK

I "The ratepayers are not getting a I fair return for the money spent on the I levelling of the Johnsonville Recrea-j | tion Ground," said Commissioner C.! R. Fisher, when the question of the work done by men on No. 13 scheme ! i.i the district was being discussed at a meeting of the Johnsonville Town Board last night. A sum of £7000 had been spent for wages, and he considered that full use had not been made! of that money, which could have been expended on work on footpaths. It had b<r* i necessary originally to find work ior the men to do, but the amount spent was not warranted as it had been spent on a work for which the ratepayers received little benefit. It was the duty of the board to see if maintenance work could be done oy the men, and as long as work was provided he thought the authorities wouid allow the board to employ them oa maintenance work. It would • oe fairer to the ratepayers to employ half the men on the ground and the other half on road works. Commissioner F. Jacobs said men vorking under the scheme could oniy be employed on iobs of a type similar to the recreation ground. Work on the ground could not now be left half completed. Commissioner A. O. Symonds said there was little to show for the money expended. The work would be done more quickly when equipment, which the board hoped to obtain soon, was used. The cost of the work already done worked out at about £1 a yard, when similar work could be done by a bulldozer for sixpence a yard. The chairman, Mr. H. D. Morgan, said that it would be impossible under the conditions by which the men were employed to transfer them from their present work to roadwork.