RATE OF RELIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 11

RATE OF RELIEF

PRESENT RATIONS SCALE i POSSIBILITY OF REDUCTION / NO EXTRA CHRISTMAS WORK [BY TELEGRAPH- —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Friday "If the present unemployment registrations continue, it will not bo possible to continue the present scale of rations/' said the Acting-Minister of Employment, the Hon. A. Hamilton, in answering a question by Mr. A. S. Richards (Labour — Roskill) in the House to-day. Replying to a further point, the Minister said it was not proposed to provide extra work between now and Christmas. Mr. Richards had suggested that at least two extra days' work weekly should be provided, and recalled that such an arrangement was made last year when conditions were not so bad. Answering a further question, Mr. Hamilton said it was the Unemployment Board's policy to do everything possible to induce private employers to absorb labour, so that the strain on the funds would be relieved. That was illustrated by the No. 10 scheme. Mr. Richards cited an Auckland case in which ho said a married man had obtained half a day's work weekly on a farmlet to help his aged father, and because of that, the Labour Department refused him work in town, but insisted on his going into the country. Tho Minister said he would investigate tho circumstances.