FLOOD DAMAGE REPAIRS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 March 1935, Page 5

FLOOD DAMAGE REPAIRS

RELIEF WORKERS MADE AVAILABLE. HELP BY UNEMPLOYMENT BOARD. According to a statement made by the Hon. S. G. Smith at New Plymouth on Saturday, relief workers are to be made available by the Unemployment Board which will subsidise the work of repairing Taranaki roads and bridges in the recent floods. Representations to the board have been made by all four Taranaki members of Parliament. Mr Smith stated on Saturday that he and his colleagues had been interesting themselves in the question of whether assistance could be granted for the restoration of roads, bridges and flood damage. Though the Public Works Department engineers had been working at full pressure it was not yet possible to complete their reports or give any comprehensive estimate of the amount involved. In view of the extraordinary circumstances the Unemployment Board had stated that it was willing to give assistance similar to that granted in the Waikato in fighting peat fires. The statement of the hoard’s policy in regard to flood damage in Taranaki was that it would refund in respect of labour to the employing body, which must be a Government department or statutory Jocal body, up to £1 los per week for married men and los per week for single men. The men are to be provided with full-time employment for a five-day week and the amounts mentioned by the board are to be supplemented from other sources so that a standard wage in the district shall be ensured. The hoard’s certifying officer at the centre from which the labour is drawn will.have final authority in the''allocation and withdrawal of the labour. The employing authority will be responsible for the supervision and performance of the work to the satisfaction of the Public Works Department. (Private businesses are apparently not affected by the board’s concession, which applies to council and local body work. Mr Smith stated that- applications for relief for distress caused to business by flood damage had not vet been received. v