UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 14

UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM

FINANCING OF WORKS REPLY TO DEPUTATION MINISTER'S DIRECT STATEMENT [ni r TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Friday The difficulties facing the Unemployment Board and its need for the co-operation of local bodies was stressed by the Minister of Employment, the Hon. S. G. Smith, in replying to a deputation from the Wellington Citv Council. The deputation asked the Minister to increase the allocations to unemployed men by 10s a week and to abolish No. 5 scheme in favour of major national works at standard rates, the pay subsidised from the Unemployment Board's funds. Mr. Smith, in reply, stated: "I've got to face the facts. 1 can't make fancy speeches to tickle the ears of the unemployed. Wo have so much money and so many men and the board can only do its best. If No. 5 scheme finishes in Wellington the Unemployment Board has no power to start major works in Wellington, consequently the men would have to be put on sustenance, which is 3s a week less. I have no power to start major works. I will discuss them with my colleagues, but even if the Government wanted to start major works, outside of a few buildings in Wellington, it would have nowhere to turn except to national roads and railways and that means camps. The Minister went on to say it was certain conditions had improved in New Zealand. In his own town requirements for relief were down by £.' so or £4O a week, compared with last winter. In some parts of New Zealand relief depots were no longer required. On the West Coast of the South Island the problem of three years ago was largely gone. One hundred men had been wanted for a relief job there and only five were available. The Unemployment Board had been criticised in Christchurch, but when 450 men were wanted for work on the Waimakariri River only 36 had offered, and there were 1100 on sustenance in Christchurch. He said the Unemployment Board had taken 19,000 men off the streets, where they had been chipping grass, and had put them back into the building industry. B.v means of a subsidy the board had 2000 men out gold prospecting, but it never got any credit for that. What the board wanted was co-operation. It wanted to get rid of No. o scheme, but that could not be done by July 31. A member of the deputation suggested one of the difficulties was that the sustenance pay was too near to the relief pay. The Minister said that was one Ot the board's difficulties, and if No. c scheme was discontinued the position would be worse than ever. ■ The Minister offered 3os a week for married men if the City Council would bring that up to the standard rates, this applying to work that would not otherwise be undertaken. MAJOR SCHEMES

CHRISTCHURCH PROPOSAL INTEREST IN AUCKLAND Representatives of Auckland local bodies will have an opportunity on Tuesday night of considering a resolution concerning aspects of unemployment relief which was adopted unanimously at <i conference in Christchurch of the Christchurch City Council, suburban local bodies and \arious organisations. Ibis resolution was to the effect that the Public Works Department should nndertake major schemes for the absorption of men at standard rates of pay, that local bodies should support such schemes, that the unemployed sustenance rates should be increased bv 20 per cent during the winter and that, if necessary, the wages tax should be increased from lOd to Is in the pound to meet the extra cost. The terms of the resolution were conveyed to the Mayor, Mr. Ernest Davis, in* a letter from the town clerk of Christchurch, who stated that it was the desire of the conference that Auckland, with other cities, should convene a similar meeting and support the resolution carried in Christchurch. Mr. Davis stated last evening that the representatives attending the meeting of the Auckland and Suburban Drainage Board on Tuesday night, when the proposed metropolitan drainage scheme is to be considered, would be asked to discuss the Christchurch resolution.