TOWN SECTION WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 11

TOWN SECTION WORK

OFFER TO LOCAL BODIES SUBSIDY BY THE BOARD CRITICISM OF SCHEME [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Friday The Unemployment Board wrote to the Hamilton Unemployment Committee today advising that a blending of the No. 5 and No. 2 schemes, applicable to urban areas only, to be operated by Borough Councils and Town Boards, had been authorised. Under this scheme work like gardening, wood-chopping, section clearing and sub-soil drainage could be done, the householder paying 6s 3d a day and the local body paying 6s 3d. The total, 12s 6d, would be refunded to the local body by the Unemployment Board, and half of this amount was required to be paid into the Mayor's relief fund. The Mayor, Dr. F. D. Pinfold, said the scheme looked like one that would prolong the unemployment problem. Many people at the present time were looking for men to do seasonal gardening work and were willing to pay for it in the ordinary way. A member of the committee remarked that the scheme was three months too late. Extra work might have been given in the winter, whereas now it had to bo done, and was a help to unemployed workers when not engaged on relief schemes. Mr. Wilson said the matter was one for the Borough Council to adopt or reject as it thought fit. The letter was received.

NEED FOR COUNTRY WORK COUNTY COUNCILS* PETITION [from our own correspondent] PUKEKOHE, Friday A petition to the acting-Minister of Employment, the Hon. A. Hamilton, stressing the necessity for placing unemployed in reproductive work in the country instead of continuing to engage them in relief works in the cities, is being circulated for signature among county chairmen. Mr. W. A. Bishop, chairman of the Waitemata County Council, and Mr. J. N. Massey, M.P., chairman of the Franklin County Council, have signed the petition. In commending the petition, Mr. Massey stated that it was noticeable that men expressed themselves as being much happier when engaged in work that was creating reproductive assets for the country. For instance, Papakura men, who had previously been engaged chipping weeds off footpaths, had been given work helping to improve settlers' roads in Franklin County, and had expressed preference for the country work, owing to its value. Such work opened the way to the permanent absorption of the men and relief of the taxpayer. The Franklin County Council is also taking up with the acting-Minister the matter of finding additional men from the city for work in the country. Ihe council points out that it went to heavy expense to provide hutments and to lay out works for such men, but some of the hutments had been empty for many weeks. At least a further 50 men could be accommodated, there being sufficient hutments for 154, with only about 100 men in them. The Minister has replied that the Unemployment Board is considering the matter further.

INJURED RELIEF WORKERS MAINTENANCE DURING ABSENCE [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Friday The submission that men incapacitated through injuries received on relief work should be maintained by the Unemployment Board until they are well enough to resume work has been made to the actingMinister of Employment, the Hon. A. Hamilton, bv the Counties Association. Mr. Hamilton has replied that the board cannot agree that this is a reasonable charge on the Unemployment Fund. "In any case." he states, "the men are in exactly the same position as any other men covered by an accident insurance policy, in that they receive two-thirds of their earnings."

GROWING OF VEGETABLES PENALTY FOR DEFYING ORDER [by TELEGHAPH —PRESS association] WELLINGTON, Friday At a meeting of the committee of the garden allotment scheme the director of city reserves asked what was being done to those relief workers who were taking no notice of the order to grow vegetables. Mr. G. G. M. Mitchell, of the Labour Bureau, said such men were being deprived of work by the bureau. Eighty men had been put off the lists last week, and another 20 were being put off this week. On one job the men had made a bonfire of the notices, and in other cases they had torn them up and thrown them into the air.