UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3829, 9 August 1928, Page 2

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

COST TO STATE. Relief of unemployment last year; cost the state over half a million pounds. “In order to provide work for those who had the misfortune to be out of employment,” said the Minister of Finance, in a brief Budget reference to the matter, “the Government arranged for additional works, mostly on roads, and treeplanting, to be put in hand during 1927-28. The expenditure on such works amounted to approximately 1397,000. In addition, subsidies earned on works undertaken by local authorities during the year totalled 1113,000, so that the total cost of unemployment works to the State was £510,000. “As unemployment is again prevalent this winter, steps were taken, as soon as the House met, to further extend the life of the legislation empowering local authorities to raise loans expeditiously for unemployment works without taking a poll of ratepayers. In the same Act —Local Authorities Empowering (Relief of Unemployment) Amendment Act, 1928 —the provision for payment of subsidies out of the Consolidated Fund on wages and voluntary contributions was extended to £300,000, inclusive of the amount paid over last year.”