EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES.

Evening Star, Issue 20666, 13 December 1930, Page 30

EMPLOYMENT SCHEMES.

TO. THE EDITOR. Sir, —A correspondent has described the living conditions prevailing at the unemployed relief work camps, and one cannot help coming to the conclusion that they are deplorable. We are all anxiously waiting to hear the proposals' of the new Unemployment Board and the schemes these picked men have in mind to relieve the hopelessness .of the workless, but if this fund is only going into the hands of committees to be spent on unnecessary improvements, or to subsidise the farmers for the drop in the prices of wool, then wo shall be in a few years as wo were The first step that should be taken is that the unemployed carpenters be given the job of building movable huts to replace the unsuitable, inadequate tents used at present, .where the men could keep dry and live in something like comfort while working away from home. Tho council could take charge of this work, and . see that the unemployed were engaged for tho job. Another scheme that could be put in hand with a view to improving tho homes of the people and the City Beautiful is for the council to condemn all tho ramshackle hovels that mar • tho city, with their broken fences, a perpetual eyesore to anyone but the most slovenly. Not many landlords would object to this improvement taking place if a subsidy for tho wages came from the fund when it had been proved that tho owner was in no financial position to undertake these improvements without help. Scores of schemes such as these could ho started, and be a real benefit to the people. It is a pity the position of a councillor is not a paid one, then we might get initiative and not ideas emanating from vested interest; but as there has been so much bungling over unemployment perhaps the time is not far distant when councillors will bo paid for doing their job and their time spent in acquiring a thorough knowledge of tho wants of the city and tho housing of its people.-;—X am, etc., ’ Mother or Six. December 13. /