RELIEF WORK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 244, 14 September 1932, Page 12

RELIEF WORK

NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED

Per Press Association.

WELLINGTON, Sept. 13. A total of 73,241 men were wholly or partly dependent upon relief work from the Unemployment Board during the week ended September 3, according to a statement issued to-day by the Act-ing-Minister of Employment (Hon. A. Hamilton). In addition to being the first review of registrations under the new policy of publishing figures only once a month, the statement contained the first official analysis of the actual manner in which relief workers are being employed. “The number of men remaining on the registers of the unemployment bureaus throughout the Dominion for the week ended September 3 w’as 56,456,” said the Minister. “There had been little variation in the total registrations during the preceding four weeks. Of this number 49,380 were in receipt of relief through scheme No. 5, leaving 7076 unplaced during the week under review. Most of these men -were for various reasons ineligible for relief under the Unemployment Board’s schemes. In addition to the figures quoted above, there were 16,785 men in employment provided tlirough the medium of assistance granted from the Unemployment Fund, the details being: Subsidised employment on farms under schemes 4a and 4b, the farm camp scheme, etc., 12,945; camp schemes (mostly single men), land improvement and development, 1350; highways and backblocks roads, 1250; building, subsidy scheme No. 10, 830; gold prospecting schemes (exclusive of 1242 men prospecting under scheme No. 5), 260; total, 16,785. “It will be seen, therefore, that 66,165 men were in one way or another a charge on the Unemployment Fund during the week under review, while if the unplaced- men are included there was a total of 73,241 men wholly or partly dependent upon relief from the Unemployment Board. It is estimated that of the 66,165 men quoted at least 36,000 were engaged in developmental and reproductive work in connection with the Dominion’s primary industries.”

AMOUNT SPENT BY BOARD

Per Press Association,

WELLINGTON, Sept. 13. Although the Unemployment Board’s income tor the financial year was estimated at a figure which would enable it to spend ±,69,000 a week upon all activities, it is understood authoritatively that the board lias recently been spending at the rate of approximately £90,600 a week. Shortly before lie left lor Ottawa the Minister of Employment (lit. Hon. J. G. Coates) urranged that authority be given by the Government to enable the board to spend considerably more than its normal income each week during the winter mouths, the board -having made available an extra £16,000 a week between June and September. Unless further provision is made in the near future to continue this extra financial assistance, it will cease. This extra money was stated at the time to be needed for providing additional relief in the rural districts where assistance was not on the same basis as that in the urban areas.