RELIEF WORKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 111, 7 April 1927, Page 11

RELIEF WORKS.

QUESTION OF WAGES

STATEMENT BY PREMIER,

WELLINGTON, April 7. A flat denial to the suggestion that he was concerned with the cutting down of wages was given by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. J. G Coates) in the course of his reply to a deputation yesterday.- Mr Coates also reiterated his views about the payment of wages to men' on relief works. _ The Government, said the Prime Minister, desired to maintain the standard of living. There was only one way of accomplishing that—by increasing the output per unit. “While we are up against difficulties,” said Mr Coates, “it is a matter for everyone to get at it for all he is worth.” It was necessary, in the present economic depression, for everybody to give a better return, wherever possible, in order to meet the present competition. The payment of. 9s and 12s a day for relief workers had been questioned, but it would help those who received it to carry on in' the meantime. The Government did not accept the responsibility for employing everybody. The payment of standard rates would tend to make the work permanent and remove the incentive to seek a job elsewhere.

A member: Better than starving them slowly at 9s per day. The Prime Minister: These are‘exaggerations. We are doing our very bes; to meet the position. . . . Men who cannot get work will be much better off with 12s a day than nothing. . . . These are my considered opinions and they will have to receive whatever criticism people desire to make.