LOAN ADVOCATED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 170, 19 June 1934, Page 6

LOAN ADVOCATED

PROVISION FOR WORKLESS. DISTRICT LOCAL BODIES. Representing the business and commercial interests of the city, large and influential deputation waited upon the City Council last evening with the suggestion that it submit to the ratepayers for their consideration a man of £7500 for capital works, and that, pending this, immediate furthei relief be granted unemployed men by speeding up, during the nexU ten weeks, the expenditure of the £S,UUU allocated this year for the provision of unemployment relief works. llie proposal was also advanced that a district conference of local bodies be called, and this action is now contemplated. The members of the deputation wore introduced by Cr W. B. Tennent as a body of men who were anxious that something definite and constructive should be done for the relief of unemployment. Welcoming them, the Mayor said no problem had given the council more ■worry or occuipied so much of its time in recent years as that of unemployment, and from time to time it had set aside money to deal with it.

OUTLINE OF PROPOSALS. Mr J. C. Young, the deputation’s first speaker, said that three weeks or so ago a meeting, thoroughly representative of all sections of the business and professional men in the city, had been held. The meeting had wholeheartedly deplored .that sustenance rates had to be paid. It was solely concerned with that lamentably small amount paid to the. unemployed one week in four. Mr Young said two motions had been passed. One was: This meeting requests the council, in an endeavour to relieve the distress amongst the unemployed, to replace before the ratepayers a proposal for a loan of, say, £7500; this 'money to be :s'ent entirely on capital works, such as storm water drainage, and formation and tar-sealing of streets. The loan would mean, that value would be received for the money In the ten weeks that would elapse before the loan money would be available, it was suggested that the expenditure of the £5,000 on the estimates for unemployment relief should be speeded up to put those on sustenance on the full unemployment rate of pay until the fate of the loan should be known. There was a subsidy for that money which would come from the Government.

COST TO COUNCIL. It was' proposed, added Mr Young, that throughout the ten weeks of the winter the council should • spend £4OO weekly on the men in their fourth (sustenance) week, and the Government’s £4OO would be available. This would absorb £4,000 so far as the city was concerned. They realised they had made a mistake in rejecting the previous loan poll for unemployment, as they now understood that a Government subsidy would, be available on this amount. The deputation were pledged to support the council in the submission of the loan, which would be of immense value to the city. Meantime, it was proposed that the men should at least receive the former scale of relief.

CAPITAL WORKS PROGRAMME. Dealing with another phase of the matter. Mr W. G. Black said that while lie disagreed entirely with the principle of relief measures, he realised that something had to be done immediately. The business men had carried a resolution requesting the City Council to convene immediately a conference of contiguous locai bodies with the object of arriving at a programme of capital works to provide regular work for all registered unemployed in the district, and relieve the present necessity for sustenance. There was, they believed, in the districts contiguous to Palmerston North, wide scope -for road development on co-operative lines. Cr H. B. Free asked if the committee would continue to function with the idea of giving the unemployed, by some scheme, a little more than their presnt rates of pay. Mr Young said that the matter had been considered, but it was thought that the Central Relief Committee was doing what it could in that regard. If the proposal were not carried those in the city who were able to give would be called upon further. The Mayor said he felt sure the deputation came in a spirit of repentance, realising that the council had been right in advancing the last loan proposal. How many of them had supported that? he asked. It appeared that they now appreciated the suffering and hardships endured by those on sustenance. He could promise he would attend at the earliest possible moment to the calling of a meeting of the contiguous local bodies. He would go into the matter: of a loan immediately with the engineer, and he trusted that the council would be able to formulate plans that would meet with their approval. He thanked them for their trouble and interest. The deputation then withdrew. QUESTION OF EXTENT.

Subsequently the Mayor said he thought that the best way to deal with the requests was to ask the engineer to supply to the next meeting of the works committee a list of what works could be undertaken in the city to comply with the deputation’s wishes. Cr. Tennent seconded the motion. Cr. H. B. Free asked whether the proposals submitted by the engineer would be sufficient to meet the position, say, for six months. The Mayor said that it was a difficult question to answer at the present time. He thought that the engineer’s proposals would allow the council to choose what works should be done. He had heard that day that the men were coming in off the drains. That might mean that the number in the city would be very much more. The council could make allowances for men who might come on to the city works or men who might go off. They did not know the position from day to day. Cr. Tennent said he took it that the engineer would base his estimates on the present figures. The Mayor said the engineer would probably submit plans for more works than were actually required, in order that the council could narrow down the selection.

Cr. Free inquired if the Unemployment Board would subsidise these works.

The Mayor: We have to get the Unemployment Board to agree with us. Cr. ~J. Hodgens said they must get an understanding from the board that if capital works were undertaken men would not be taken off them by the board and placed on sustenance, as had been done recently where men were engaged on capital works for the Palmerston North Hospital and River Boards. The motion was carried. The matter of calling a conference of local bodies was left in the hands of the Mayor. Cr. Cameron supported this, stating

that the county councils adjacent to Palmerston North were not taking as many relief workers as counties around other centres. ENLARGED SCOPE. Subsequently the following resolution was moved by Cr. Tennent: “That this council, realising the acuteness of the unemployment problem and also the fact that there seems little progress in the elimination of unemployment, requests the executive of the Municipal Association to convene a special meeting of representatives of all city and borough councils, together with representatives of those county councils willing to cooperate; this meeting to be called at the earliest convenient date and to be for the express purpose of discussing and formulating some better system of allocating the funds of the Unemployment Board, and the formation of sonic definite constructive plan for the elimination of the unemployment problem. It is to he clearly understood that discussion is to be' confined to this aspect of the unemployment problem.” Amplifying this, he said rates of pay were not so important as the root, ing out of the cancerous unemployment problem. It was a matter for united local body action. Cr. W. B. Cameron seconded the motion. The Mayor commented that he had heard that day that a movement was afoot to call all tbo local bodies together to consider unemployment generally. and not on any particular lines. The resolution put forward should add impetus to that. The motion was carried mously.