UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 April 1932, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

COUNCIL DONATES £lO. Writing to the Greymouth Borough Council, last evening, Mr E. Nordstrom, acting-secretary for the unemployed, stated that, owing to the fact that unemployed under, 20 years of age aro not eligible for the No. . 5 scheme, their position is becoming serious. Could the Council give a donation to help these men, of whom there are quite a number? he asked. Cr J. McGinley: I don’t think we can give anything to anybody. We are £2OOO down, now. The Mayor (Mr J. W- Greenslade) said that the Council’s finance was not bad, but was not so good as it was last year. Some of the unemployed men were having a bad time. The Council had spent £l2OO during the past twelve months, to provide extra work for the unemployed. Cr J. B. Kent moved that £lO be voted to the Mayor's Fund, for the specific purpose of helping the unemployed under 20 years of age. Such men were not catered for under the Unemployment Act. The Mayor would know the deserving cases. The resolution was seconded by Cr A.®M. Carroll. Cr R. J. Williams: I think it is a national matter. If we can afford to give away money, we can afford to reduce the rates.

Cr Kent said it was not a matter of giving away money. It was a deserving cause, and the Council was allowed £lOO as unauthorised expenditure.

Cr McGinley remarked that £lO would not amount to 5/- for each man Cr Kent: I thought, possibly, it would help the Mayor’s Fund. The Mayor said that any money which went into the Mayor’s Fund, was expended in work, for which the Council got a return.

Cr Carroll said he thought it would be reasonable to give £lO. It would show the unemployed that the Council was not lacking in sympathy for them. When it was understood that )the Council was over £2OOO down, in rates collected, it would be realised that more than £lO could not be given. The resolution was approved.

WORLD STATISTICS.

LONDON, April 7.

In the House of Commons, Sir Henry Betterton, answering a question, said that 1,220,000 men, women and children in England and Wales, at present, aro receiving poor relief, compared with 1,005.000 at the end of September. . The registered unemployed m Britain on . March 31 numbered 2,58?.,000. The corresponding figure in France was 343,000, which it is understood represented only a small proportion of France’s unemployed. Germany’s figure was 6,129,000. The American Federation of Labour’s estimate of wholly unemployed for February totals 8,300,000.