FAMILY EARNINGS

Northern Advocate, 7 November 1932, Page 8

FAMILY EARNINGS

FORM OF INQUIRY. j t f ♦ . “ I ALLEGATION OF “SPYING.” 'J I (From Our Parliamentary Special.) WELIJNGTON, Saturday. Tlio form of tho inquiries tho Labour ( Department is making into Hie earnings of the families of relief workers was the subject of vehement protest by Mr ,T. A. Lee (Labour, Grey Lynn) in the House yesterday. Mr Leo said the Minister should, without delay, give the House some infer.ration as to the number of Labour Department employees who were engaged “to spy into people’s homes and discover whether they were letting rooms, whether Ihe wife of an individual who is receiving a sma'l amount of unemployment assistance is scrubbing out offices in struggling to , get something towards the rates so that the home can be maintained, or to earn a few shillings for the purchase of a pair of shoes.” He asserted that some appeared to have been selected for their capacity to offend rather thgn for .their tactfulness. Mr Lee contended that tho Minister should reconsider the question of whether it was desirable that tbe Lubniploy.i ent Fund should be utilised to subsidise and pay the wages of a. host of inspectors who ran round the hack doors of people’s homes finding out the nature of their furniture or the vege tables in the garden, and whether tbe sons or daughters were helping 1o sup- | plement the earnings by distributing newspapers or selling books, before relief to the individual w;js granted. The whole administrative policy in that respect was wrong. The position was that immediately'' some anonymous person wrote to the department, stating that an individual was earning an extra half a crown a week, one of the officials was round the back door of the home, bullying some woman with full Authority of the Government. He asked the Minister to state what tests were applied to ensure tha.t tho individual engaged in detection work were qualified, and what wages were paid. Their wages should not he one cent, more than those received by the : people who were “under tho lash..”