PUBLIC WORKS DISMISSALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21120, 1 March 1932, Page 10

PUBLIC WORKS DISMISSALS.

APPREHENSION AT ROTORUA. TOTAL OF 114 MEN INVOLVED. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] KOTORUA, Monday. About 25 men engaged by the Public Works Department on internal roading and scrub-cutting on the Galatea Estate have been dismissed. The services of 14 men of the Agricultural Department, who have been doing development work aI; the Ngakuvu No. 2 block, have also been dispensed with. A gang of 75 Public Works employees at the To Teko block, which lias been carrying out contract work, will bo put off when the contracts terminate in a short time.

There is a feeling in the district that those 114 dismissals are only the forerunner of more drastic measures. The majority of the men affected were formerly engaged on the abandoned East Coasfc railway. There are already about 500 unemployed in the Rotorua district, and the local unemployment committee is apprehensive that the dismissed men will become a further drain on its resources. It is considered that unless further grants are forthcoming from the Unemployment Board the position in Re tor u a will bo desperate. Representations will be made to the Government, and a deputation is expected to wait upon Mr. C. H. Clinkard, M.P., in the near future. Some relief wilt b© given, however, by the fact that forestry operations will begin for the season this month. This work will probably absorb a fairly large number of men, as the Governmont is.: believed to have an extensive scheme in view.