UNEMPLOYMENT

Evening Star, Issue 19588, 21 June 1927, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT

RELIEF WORKS COMMENCED About seventy-five men have be«n started on the relief works which tho City Corporation has put in hand for the most necessitous cases. The wages tor those men, and others whom it is hoped will be employed soon, will bo provided out of tho £5,000 loan which the City Council intends to raise, and which will be subsidised by the Government by £ for £. Work has been started on tho formation of the road behind Logan Park, and on tho widening of High street just above the High Street School. Tho men for the relief works are engaged through the Labor Department, which, in selecting them, takes the most necessitous cases. These men have to make a declaration that, they hare been resident in tho area controlled by tho City Council for the past six months.

Apart from the men who have been placed on the relief works, tho Labor Department had on its hooks at noon to-day 424 unemployed. These included 210 married men and 214 single men. No men had been placed on work other than the relief wol’ks.

No advice has yet been received locally in regard to the relief work which the Prime Minister said would bo found for over 200 men in Dunedin. This morning the secretary of the Otago Trades Council (Mr J. Robinson) sent the following telegram to the Prime Minister: —"When can you give effect to your promise to double tho quota employed on public works in this district?” At its weekly meeting last night the Otago Rugby Union’s Management Committee decided to donate £SO to the unemployment fund forthwith. That amount will bo taken out of the takings of tho annual Charity Day Saturday match, which will not bo held yet for some weeks. The committee was actuated by tho fact that tho need was pressing, and that it was better to make a donation at once instead of waiting for Charity Saturday. This morning several olflrials of the Otago Rugby League called upon the mavor (Mr W. B. Taverner) and kindly offered to put on a benefit match to assist tho unemployment fund. It was proposed to match two senior teams, Athletic ami Christian Brothers, on July 2 at tho Caledonian Ground, to make tho price of admission Cd, and to set up an influential committee to canvass for the sale of tickets. Tho amount raised, said the mayor, will he subject to tho Government subsidy of £ for £. It is understood that a protest will he made to tho City Council by the Trades Council against tho pavment of relief rates of wages on the relief works, mid that a deputation mnv wait on the next meeting of the council urging that award rates he paid.