TRANSPORT BOARD LOAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20256, 16 May 1929, Page 12

TRANSPORT BOARD LOAN.

Sir, —In deciding that preference of ■employment be given to men with at least, three months' residence in the Transport district, the Transport Board have been guilty—unwittingly, perhaps—of extreme parochialism.- No one can blame the Transport Board in placing some restriction to prevent local unemployed being shouldered out, but that protection should, in my opinion, at least embrace the whole Auckland Metropolitan area. The "Transport District" is too narrow. Take for instance the New Lynn, Glen Eden, and Henderson districts, and others; large numbers of the unemployed, including ex-City Council employees'temporarily unemployed, reside in these districts. They have been consistently encouraged to do- so. for. I ilia ', public benefit in order to avoid congestion and slum areas in the city proper and so on. Now, the Transport Board, one of'the largest employers of labour in the city, definitely penalises them for making their homes in the suburbs. It is no fault of theirs, rather their regret" that arbitrary, fixing of the transport area boundaries has left them outside the pale. Many workers have already abandoned their homes in these suburban districts through unemployment, and other causes, and a decision such as that made by the Transport Board is going to make it still harder for those who remain. Already in Glen Eden alone there is a large number of empty and abandoned houses, and if other large city employers, the Harbour Board, for instance (many of'whose employees live in the suburbs), follow the example of the Transport Board, we shall all have to pack up and take rooms in the city. I trust that the Transport Board will reconsider its decision in the best interests of the whole community. J. H. Hayes. Glen Eden.