WASTEFUL EXPENSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21359, 7 December 1932, Page 10

WASTEFUL EXPENSE

! OTA HUH U RELIEF WORK j _____ £SOOO FOR £SOO JOB HIGH SCHOOL PLAYGROUND "MONUMENT OF EXTRAVAGANCE An extraordinary example of wasteful unemployment expenditure is disclosed in the case of tho Otahuhu High School playground improvements, which so far have cost nearly £3OOO to construct. It is estimated that another £2OCO will be required from the Unemployment Board s funds to complete, the work, making a total of £SOOO. Yet local contractors state that they would have been pleased to do the job for only £SOO. Lack of tools and equipment and insufficient supervision are blamed for the scandalous expense of (he work carried out. Whereas a private contractor would have completed the job in a few months with the use of a few men and a couple of ploughs and horse-drawn scoops, the school committee had to make use of between 25 and 30 men for ten months and 50 men for five months, using picks and shovels and wheelbariows, which had to be moved 150 yards So be tipped.

A Contractor's Estimate An Otahuhu contractor stated yesterday that he would have quoted £SOO, based on the removal of 10,000 cubic yards of spoil at Is a yard, as a contract price for the entire job. at which figure he would havo made a profit. Instead of that, unemployed labour was engaged and the cost to date was £2890, and would be £SOOO before it was finished. Whereas he could have done tho job for Is a cubic yard, it was costing the country no less than 10s a yard. Mr. C. It. Petrie, chairman of the school committee, who was approached yesterday, agreed that from the national point of view the new playgrounds were " a monument of extravagance." He emphatically refuted the suggestion that the school committee was in any way to blame. " When the work started we had no money, and we still have no money," he said. " The entire cost of the workhas been financed by tho Unemployment Board in the interests of the unemployed. We did not even have any. money to pay the wages of a permanent supervisor, having to make selections from the ranks of the unemployed themselves. Right from the start we were handicapped by lack of tools and in this respect we obtained no assistance from the Unemployment Board, which only paid wages. We tried to obtain help from the Public Works Department but were t-old the only tools we could have must be hired, barrows at* 6d a week and picks and shovels at a week. As we did not even have any money to pay for the hire of tools, we begged and borrowed where we could and even persuaded some of the relief workers to make barrows, which in that way only cost £5 a dozen, that is to say, considerably less than the cost of hire and replacement.

" No Choice in the Matter" " I agree that relief labour, with its consequent broken time, is not as satisfactory as labour paid full wages and properly equipped with 'tools, but what could we do when we had no money? If the school committee had any choice in the matter it would have plumped right away for the contract system, which would have been ten times cheaper, but of course we had no choice. It would have been better and cheaper if the Public Works Department could have' been persuaded to take it over, but this is a relief work job and the use of plant is practically forbidden." Pie added that while the work was admittedly carried out in an extremely costly manner, it had provided sustenance to a considerable number of men, which was what the Unemployment. Board's funds were for. The improvements being carried out include the construct'on of live tennis courts, a cricket ground and two football fields, the total area involved being about 7j acres. Work was commenced with relief labour in September, 1931, and so far only about one-fifth of the excavation and levelling has been carried out. Not being able to pay for the work on contract, the school committee never obtained a reliable estimate of the cost, but more than one contractor expresses the opinion that (lie job could have been completed for about £SOO. That the school authorities did their best under extremely difficult circumstances is shown by the fact that £45 worth of materials are being purchased from funds raised by the pupils and staff.