NO MORE RELIEF WORK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20897, 12 June 1931, Page 13

NO MORE RELIEF WORK.

(NOTICE OF SUSPENSION. BOARD'S FUNDS DEPLETED. £40,000 SPENT WEEKLY. "ENORMOUS DEMANDS." 1 MATTER FOR PARLIAMENT. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Thursday. The Unemployment Board's No. 5 scheme for relief Avork is to he indefinitely suspended as from Saturday, June 20, owing to lack of funds. A special meeting of the Cabinet was called yesterday to deal with a resolution submitted bv tho Unemployment Board. The resolution set out that at the present rate of expenditure the Unemployment Fund would bo exhausted by the end of next week and that the board was faced with no other alternative than to advise the Minister of Finance that unless apd until further funds could be made available the operation of scheme No. 5 would have to be suspended. The Cabinet, after careful consideration of the resolution and the position of the fund, decided that the operation of scheme No. 5 should be suspended on Juno 20. Money Proves Inadequate. The following statement was issued by the Prime Minister, the Rt, Hon. G. W. Forbes: —• ' "Tho funds of the. Unemployment Board are provided under the Unemployment Act of last year. They consist solely of tho unemployment levy payments, with a subsidy of pound for pound of expenditure from the Consolidated Fund, There was no indication at the time tho legislation was passed" that the fund would be subjected to such enormous demands as have eventuated. Consequently, it has proved quite inadequate to provide for each of the 13 weeks in tho quarter. "Even with the small amount of relief that is at present being granted, the funds of the board have been depleted to tho point where it is impossible to carry on with scheme No. 5 beyond June 20, as the Minister of Finance has / no authority to provide further moneys for the fund without the sanction of Parliament. Outgoings Exceed Income. "The maximum income of the board, inclusive of tho subsidy from the Consolidated Fund, is £24,000 a week. The outgoings, even on the closely-iationed basis followed, are approximately £40,000 a week. A temporary suspension of scheme No. 5 was made on April 11, when the basis of rationing was reduced and the qualifications for relief revised so that only those genuine unemployed wage-earners 'with little or no resources were declared eligible for relief. "Notwithstanding the large numbers eliminated by this revision and reclassification, the cvar-increasing registrations caused by employers all over the Bominion discharging hands, and bv those who had previously been endeavouring to carry on without obtaining relief being ultimately forced to apply for work, have marie the total eligible for relief even greater than before the suspension. «> What the Figures Show. "Until, however, this revision and reclassification was complete and a few weeks' experience of tho actual expenditure on resumption of schome No. 5 was obtained, it was impossiblo to ascertain just what tho actual outgoings were. "Now that/ 1 the figures have become ava lable, it 'is realised that with an approximate expenditure of £40,000 a week, a stoppage is inevitable until further funds are available. ihe piocceds of the levy on June 1 will all be required to meet commitments to the date of suspension, and until Parliament 1 has met and decided what is to be done to meet the position, Cabinet has decided that there is no option but to suspend operations. G-sneral Appeal Made. "No further commitments will be entered into under any other of the board's schemes, although existing commitments will be met. "The Government earnestly appeals to all local, bodies, local unemployment committees, churches and all charitable organisations to use their utmost endeavour to organise the resources (private or otherwise) of their districts so as to ensure that at least no one will go without food, clothing or shelter. It is obvious that a united effort is necessary to take care of cases of distress and to cope with the situation until Parliament is able to/ deal with the position."

" DISASTROUS ACTION." CHARITABLE AID RELIEF. ACUTE SITUATION FEARED. "The suspension of the No. 5 scheme Is going to make our position more acute than ever/" said Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, "and it will justify our ftction iu passing our reduced estimates under /strong protest. Last month we spent £5600 in outdoor relief and this was £ISOO over the expenditure for May, HS3O. For tlie tfivo months of April and •M.iv we paid o.ut almost £IO.OOO. Mr. Wallace added that the action of the Government would he disastrous to the hoard. It would carry on with relief as long as its funds lasted and when they were exhausted tho board would have to look to the Government. At its meeting that afternoon the Relief Committee had considered and dealt with hundreds of necessitous cases. He thought the treatment of the hospital boards at the hands of the Government was nothing short of scandalous./ Mr. W. K. Howilt, chairman of llie. relief committee of the hoard, stated that at tho rate, appeals for relief had been received in the first 11 days of the present month over £6OOO would be spent during June. This would mean that the expenditure of the board in relief would amount to about £70,000 a year. With tho withdrawal of tho No. 5 scheme, ho anticipated demands equivalent to £BO,OOO or £90,000 a year. Nevertheless, the Government had brought the board's estimate for relief down to £46,000. That sum he did not consider would cover onehalf of the assistance requiring to be given.

POSITION IN AUCKLAND. 10,000 MEN AFFECTED. LOCAL BODIES SURPRISED. THE ACTIVITIES IN HAND. The decision of the Government to suspend the No. 5 schemo will have farreaching effects as regards tho number of men who will be thrown out of employment. Til the Auckland labour district alone, which extends from Mercer in the south to Maungaturoto in tho north, about 10,000 men will be without work. Of this number, about 8000 are engaged under the No. 5 scheme, the remainder being at present unemployed. Tho 6400 men at present employed under the No. 5 scheme by 18 local authorities in Greater Auckland will bo affected by the suspension of tho scheme. The number employed by local bodies elsewhere in the Auckland labour district is said to bo about 1200. Of tho 9000 men registered, according'to a recent announcement —a number since increased considerably—7soo were employed by tho various local authorities. Details of Present Employment. The numbers of men at present employed unde:r the No. 5 schemo by local authorities in Auckland are as follows: — Waitcmata County Council f ..- 1.400 Mount Roskill Road Board r.-.- POO Auckland City Council .. r.-v COO Auckland Transport Board v.- 450 Mount Albert Borough Council 4:10 Mount Eden Borough Council r.-s 400 Onehunga Boro.igh Council •..• 400 Mnnukau County Council _ w 330 New Lynn Boro.ich Council •. .• 300 Otahuhu Borough Council r.v '-< SO Devonport Borough Council r.r 235 Taknpuna Borough Council ISO One Tree Mill Borough Council n IPS Kllcrslie Town Board .. :.v 120 Northeote Borough Council •.? 01 Birkenhead Borough Council r.v 90 Newmarket Borough Council 78 Mount ■Wellington Road Board r.v 60 Total r..! r.a ;.-b ?.s> 6,421 Officers of the local bodies received no warning of the suspension of the scheme and the general view is that there will be considerable disorganisation, apart from the serious effect on the thousands of men in Aucklar.d who have been depending on the relief afforded. If the suspension is maintained, and no hope of renewal is held out, the men will simply have to ha.ve recourse to charitable aid. Tho position is regarded by tho local authorities, which have made efforts to provide as much work as possible, in a serious light, and a stringent situation is expected if no relief work is offered during the winter. Many Works Incomplete. The local bodies were not able to prepare for the suspension, and they are faced with the prospect of having many works left incomplete. Advantage was taken of the relief scheme to carry out several permanent works, many of which will have to bo left unfinished. As an indication of the surprise of the announcement, several local ,bodies had in view works to be begun within a few woeks. .The City Council at present has 600 men engaged. The works in hand include the grubbing of gorse, formation of a path at Western Springs, work in Garnett and Porter's Streets, Avondale, cutting of undergrowth and path formation in the Outer Domain, improvements in Dingle Street, St. Heliers, filling of a swamp area on the Mission Bay Reserve, levelling of recreation areas at Point Chevalier, work on Windmill Road, Epsom, aad die-cutting of drains at Lake Waiatarua. In the Waitemata and Manukau Counties, 1730 men are engaged on road formation, a work which is progressing in most of the suburban districts. The Mount Roskill Road Board, which has been a leading employer of relief workers since the inception of the scheme, has 800 men on a number of works. Works in the Suburbs. In the borough of Mount Eden, formation work is in hand at Landscape Road, Bathurst Street, Kingsford Road, St. Alban's Avenue and Clive Road, and improvements are being carried out at Nicholson Park, 400 men being engaged. Mount Albert is employing 430 men on drainage and road construction, and improvements are in progress at Owairaka Park, the Mornmgside Reserve and Mill side Terrace Reserve. The Auckland Transport Board has 450 men engaged on reconstruction work in several parts of its district. At One iiunga, the Borough Council has 400 men oi clearing work at Hillsborough Lomeimprovements at Onehunga and ie Pipana Schools, and tho formation of breastworks. Road and footpath construction is the principal work elscwherc but improvements are being effected at Stanley Bay Park, Devonport, bturgess Park, Otahuhu, and the Newmarket S TLbeen anticipated general!,- that tho scheme would bo in operation foi an other three months, at least.

finances of the board. NEARLY £318,000 IN LEVIES. HEAVY COMMITMENTS. The Unemployment Board was appointed on November 20 and held its first meeting five days later. Ihe fi'-st msUlment of the levy was payable on December 1. 'be second March 1, and the thud on Juno 1. Up to May 31 the receipts lere £*17,877, of which £178.000 was received in the first period, many payments of the full levy for four quarters having been made at the outset. An account of the board's finances up lo March 31 was published in tho Gazette recently. It showed receipts from levy £229,000, subsidy from the Consolidated Fund £159,246 and a donation of £l, a total ol £388,256. Grants by the board amounted to £313,209; administration expenses to £4001; and fees and travelling expenses to £1931. There was a balance at March 31 of £69,115. . According to a statement by the Prime Minister at Otahuhu last month, expenditure arid commitments up to the end of April amounted to £715,984. Even if that total lias not since been increased, li would exceed by £40,000 the receipts from levies up to May 1 and the Government subsidy of half the board's expenditure.