NEW RELIEF SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21166, 26 April 1932, Page 8

NEW RELIEF SYSTEM.

The first instalment of the new system of unemployment relief provides for an incrcaso in the scale,especially for family men, and, most important of all, the abolition of the "stand down" week, which has been a prolific sourco of discontent and has imposed a very heavy burden upon the hospital boards. The new rates do not represent the maximum amount of sustenance those with the heaviest family responsibilities are to receive, for, apart from the provision made for supplying necessities according to (heir need, family allowances arc paid. The issue of orders for extra sustenance deemed necessary will case the burden of hospital boards, and should give general satisfaction anions the unemployed, A start has been made with the rural allotments scheme, and no opportunity should be lost of extending this or initiating other schemes of a productive character. Probably camps at works that will give some return in the form of national assets will absorb a much larger body of men in the immediate future. Those so far established have been summer camps onlv. With the change in the season some are to be shifted, and all should be made fit for winter residence. "\\ liilc the comfort of their occupants depends, in a measure, upon their own efforts, no essential facility must be lacking, and arrangements will have to l>e made for the supply of adequate clothing. . Efficient staff work is called for. The heavy increase in the wages tax makes possible a programme of wide scope and usefulness. The more useful its purpose the readier will be the majority of the unemployed to go to their task in a spirit of co-operation, and the more cheerfully will the new tax be paid.