DISMISSAL OF MEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19959, 30 May 1928, Page 13

DISMISSAL OF MEN.

CITY ROAD LOAN EXPENDED. HUNDRED LABOURERS INVOLVED QUESTION OF RELIEF WORKS. Fifty labourers employed by the Auckland City Council on road improvement schemes have been dismissed owirg to the pending completion of the work allowed for by the £710,000 loan raised three years ago for street improvements in the city and suburbs. Another 50 men will be relieved of their work by the end of the present week, making a total of 100. Many of the men have been in municipal employment since 1925, when the work under the big loan was Although a considerable amount of work still remains to be done on the roads, the loan moneys available are rapidly nearing depletion and the putting off of a large number of men was deemed necessary Many of the dismissed men have been engaged in the construction of concrete roads, a work which is approaching completion. It is unlikely they will be easily re-absorbed, as the municipal relief works are fully staffed at present, Mr. E. J. Phelan, a member of the City Council and the Auckland Patriotic Society, stated yesterday that the fund for the relief work raised by the Citizen's Unemployment Committee was nearly exhausted. He wished that arrangements would be made for the completion cf the various works already undertaken, a matter in which assistance would probably be forthcoming in the way of a contribution from the Government, which was subsidising money raised for the relief of unemployment. As far as the City Council's dismissals were concerned, he thought no other local body in the Dominion had done so much to maintain employment as the Auckland municipality. If the work for which the men had been engaged was finished there was no option but to dispense with their services. Mr. Phelan said that as a member of the Patriotic Association, he was responsible for the following telegram being sent to the Minister of Public Works:— "We understand the Auckland City Council has applied for a subsidy for relief work. We have several hundreds of returned soldiers depending upon this class of work. Will you kindlv approve all work submitted to your department by the council. The matter is very urgent, and men are clamouring for employment,."

Tn the absence of the Minister, a reply has been received intimating that the district Public; Works engineer at Auckland has been communicated with asking him to deal urgently with the matter and submit recommendations immediately. The association wonld be advispd as early as possible what could be done.