NUMBER FIVE SCHEME

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 237, 19 September 1934, Page 7

NUMBER FIVE SCHEME

Two Objectionable Results

WHERE WORK IS SCARCE

[By Tele;.': ’h—Special to “Tribune''J WELLINGTON, Sept. 19.

The icily ol work suitable lor men workn.„ under tho No. 6 Scheme has produced two objectionable results, states the annual report of the Unemployment Board. To counteract the state of aliairs brought about the board has initialed sustenance payments. The board claims that about 50 per cent, of the necessary expenditure on relief works is represented in permanent assets.

“The principle hitherto adopted by the board of requiring work to be performed in exchange lor relief granted is now presenting great difficulty,” states the report. “Had the depression been an ordinary trade cycle such as is experienced at more or less regular intervals there is little doubt that for New Zealand conditions the method of providing work through local bodies in exchange for relief would have much to recommend it. Despite the criticism levelled against much ol the work done under certain schemes, the board still confidently maintains that at least 50 per cent, of theeuecessary expenditure on relief to unemployed has been salvaged in tho form of permanent assets in many parts of the country. “It is still possible to administer relief through these channels to advantage. It is in the more populous areas, where the numbers of unemployed are large and where the type ol work suited to Scheme No. 5 is becoming scarce, that the greatest difficulty is being experienced. This is producing two results, both ol which are objectionable. Either local bodies in these areas are proposing to carry out under Scheme No. 5 works which ought to be done at ordinary Standard rates and financed from their own funds; or, being unable to provide work of value sufficient to warrant overhead costs, are pressing the board lor some contribution towards the cost of materials and overhead.

“During the past year it has been necessary, therefore, m main centres to substitute sustenance payments without work for some of the relief jobs carried out under Scheme No. 5. This has mainly been confined to workers over .50 years of age and those who are unfitted lor manual work provided under Scheme No. 5,”