The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, September 23rd, 1936. COUNTY MINING COMMITTEES.

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1936, Page 4

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, September 23rd, 1936. COUNTY MINING COMMITTEES.

The abolition has been announced of the several Committees which about four years ago. wer e established in mining areas to co-operate in the administration of the gold mining subsidy for unemployed men. The Committees were set up by the County Councils in the respective localities, and had been relied upon by th e Unemployment Board to judge local conditions to a con. siderable e x t ent - The final decision in certain instances was reserved 1o the Board, but it necessarily had to depend to a very great extent upon the recommendations of the Committees. Whether the expedient in practice resulted in the best possible return for the expenditure may be a question difficult of decision, bu; it could at least be said that in most areas the subsidy scheme was the means of augmenting the amount available for the ivbffi of thosp unemployed who were srhsidisel. In add’JioL to the actual subsidy, quite a number have won gobi to a certain extent, and the number of men engaged has been evidence that relief at hast has been afforded in goldbearing districts for a fair proportion of the unemployed. Such credit, as the system has gained has to be attributed in due proportion to the County Mining Committees, and the Minister of Labour has through his officers expressed his appreciation of the work which the Committees have done. But the abolition of I he Unemployment Board (which originated the Committees) along with a deal of the Board’s other expedients, has foreshadowed the end of the Committees also. Among th e more costly West Coast undertakings that have resulted from the Committee regime has been the Humphrey’s Gully water-race extension. It remains to be seen whether that expenditure will prove reproductive. Other larger ventures have been of a prospecting’ character, and the results of these also remain mostly a matter of conjecture. At th P same time, it has to he recognised that the testing of ground is one thing, and the finding of payable gold is another. So long as a test has been thorough, the lack of payable results is not a matter for fault-finding. It would have been doubtless most satisfactory if the subsidised prospect, ing had resulted in some rich discoveries. but the lack of these so far is no reason for saying that the whole undertaking has failed in its ultimate object. Operations are to continue, but meantime the immediate, and perhaps the more important object of the Unemployment Board and the late Government has been to a certain extent attained. This apparently has been to combine a form of relief adapted for certain gold-mining areas with economy in the allocations, the men working full time with comparatively a small amount of financial aid. It is not. of course, a scheme designed to continue on any considerable scale, and the present. Government has superseded the dole rates in so many other directions that it is no surprise to find in this one that a change has been begun. The new form of local administration

by means of Labour Dopai-tincnt officials should make for a much greater degree of order. The staffs already ‘organised are to be given every consideration in the " “change-over,” and there will" be no dislocation. The scheme should take on less of a dole character, and became more constructive in aim. The pauperisation policy formerly may have put a. premium on the fossicking aspect of the subsidy, and, at the samp. time, have countenanced ventures that wore of a too obviously haphazard nature. The new local control officials will at anyrate have an advantage in thp shape of the experience gained while the Count} Committees have been in operation. and if this is used to th? best purpose improved results may soon become manifest.