RELIEF WORK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 244, 12 September 1933, Page 7

RELIEF WORK

NO ALLOCATION INCREASE. No. 5 SCHEME TEMPORARY. MR J. S. JESSEP’S STATEMENT. Per Press Association. ELTHAM, Sept. 12. Stating that the country could not Stand any more taxation for 'relief, Mr J. S. Jessep, the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board, who is at present making a hurried tour of Taranaki, told the Eltliam committee that, taking the total at, say, 70,000, it would cost another £1,820,000 to provide one extra day’s work per man per week. There was definitely no clianco of an increase in the allocation and it might he decreased as the summer came on. If work was offering the State could not afford to find relief. The single man should shift for himself. The hoard wished to get back to- normality as soon as the opportunity occurred. It was always difficult to retrace one’s steps, hut it had to be done. For New Zealand to face the situation as a permanency could not be contemplated. It was sometimes inferred that the No. 5 Scheme was permanent employment. It was not, and, as soon as the country was of the opinion that ordinary work was offering, then the country would not be prepared to keep men on the No. 5 or any other scheme. In answer to a question, Mr Jessep said he could cite any number of cases where useful work was offered and the hoard had been told that the men preferred to remain on the No. 5 Scheme. Mr Jessep was very cordially received in Eltham by the local Unemployed Committee. It is understqod that an important statement affecting relief work will be made by Mr Jessep very shortly.