DRAIN ON FUNDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1932, Page 8

DRAIN ON FUNDS.

RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT

EXPENDITURE EXCEEDS INCOME. (Bv Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 16. The financial position of the Unemployment Fund is discussed by the acting* Minister of Employment, Hon. A. Hamilton, in a letter to Mr M. J. Savage, M.P., who had conveyed the resolutions on the unemployment situation passed at a representative Auckland public The average weekly income of the Unemployment Board, states the Minister, is approximately £73,000, and at present the weekly allocation of funds to various districts for unemployment relief totals £53,000. “For a number of weeks during the late winter and spring,” adds Mr Hamilton “the board’s weekly allocation was ’£91,000. Although the board’s funds are at present quite healthy, it is easy to ee© what the result would be if the weekly allocations continue above the average weekly income.” In detailed figures relating to the Auckland position tthe Minister is able to show that the weekly allocation per head of the Auckland registered unemployed in December, 1931, amounted to 17s, but for the corresponding period this year the amount is 26s Bd. The district engineer of the Public Works Department at Auckland has reported to the head office difficulties in securing 200 married men for the department’s relief works, mainly road metalling, which are paid on the basis of 10s a day for six days’ work weekly.