DISMISSED ON SPOT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 95, 20 March 1940, Page 10

DISMISSED ON SPOT

UNSATISFACTORY WORKMEN. MINISTER SPEAKS OUT. Per Press Association. ' CHRISTCHURCH, Alarch 19. Descending on the No. 13 Scheme relief job at tlic new Burwood golf course, this morning, tho Minister of Public Works (Hon. R. Semple) closed it down on the spot and sent the 57 men employed there to their homes. Addressing the men, tho Minister referred in scathing .terms to the amount of work that was being done by tho nic.n concerned. Air Semple was acting for the Minister of. Labour (Hon. P. O. Webb). He said he had been in touch with Mr Webb by telephone and Air Webb had* approved his action in dismissing the men, assuring him of his view that the time had come for a “show down.”

“Mr Webb requested mo to have a look at this job, and I have inspected it and looked up the records. I now want to tell you this job will stop tonight. This country cannot carry the load it is carrying with the returns it is getting for the money spent,” said Mr Semple. “If moil do not give an adequate return they are imposters on the public purse, and that is not going to continue. Wc give tho highest relief pay and sustenance in the world, and that is not more than we ought to if we get a fair go. We expect a fair spin when we take the lead, and have we got it? We have not! We .have not got it on this job, and I suppose the same will be proved when investigation is made of other jote.” Mr Semple said the cost per yard on the job was shocking, and it was not hard work. He understood stopwork meetings had been held and that people had been threatened. Those responsible for that sort of thing would have any amount of time to hold job control meetings. Leaflets and poisonous matter had been distributed round this work. . . A spokesman for the dismissed men said later that the Alinister had been misled by tile employing authority, and added that they would welcome a public inquiry. Fifty per cent, of the men had been employed, they said, on maintenance work, and on occasions all of them. The charges regarding seditious propaganda were completely contrary to fact. Fourteen of the men had enlisted for military service. The committee alleged the equipment was disgraceful. Some gangs were engaged in shifting soil on stretchers made from sacks.