RELIEF SCHEMES COMPARED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21632, 30 April 1932, Page 16

RELIEF SCHEMES COMPARED

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In to-day’s issue of the Daily Times the Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E. Holland) is reported to have said in the House, during an examination of the relative positions of the unemployec. under the old scheme and the rates of pay recently introduced, that the men would now be worse off, and that married men with two children who worked nine days a month for £5 12s 6d under the old scheme would now work 14 days a month for £7, and practically hold their own, and so offset the stoppage 6f hospital assistance. Now, Sir, I, for one, being a married man with two children, whole-heartedly welcome the introduction of the new rates of pay, as, on the assumption that all will be treated alike, the _ earning of £7 a month means to me an increase of £3 5s a mouth over what I have been earning during the past four months, my average over that period having been, rather less than six days for each four weeks. During the last three weeks of the current month my allotment of relief work has been as follows: —Week ended April 16, two days; week ended April 23, stand down (with no Hospital assistance); week ended April 30, one day and a-half, payment for which will not be received until next week, and out of which 5s unemployment levy has to be paid, leaving a balance of 38s 9d with which to pay rent and to support a family of two adults and two children for three weeks. Endeavouring to exist under these conditions is very trying, but when one has for months past been working with married men with no children, and these men have been consistently receiving one day per week more than myself, it makes the position infinitely more distressing. ' V • That married men without children wno have registered in one district should be given more work than married men with two children who have registered in another district, when all concerned reside in the same township, is, in my opinion, crossly •nniust. —I am, etc., Waikouaitx Reuef Worker. April 28. .