LABOUR REPRESENTATION COMMITTEE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21710, 30 July 1932, Page 20

LABOUR REPRESENTATION COMMITTEE

MONTHLY MEETING The monthly meeting of the Otago Labour Representation Committee was held in the Trades Hall on .Thursday evening, when the president (Mr W. Morland) presided .over an attendance of 43 delegates. NEW POST OFFICE. Two delegates reported that on Monday last they attended a meeting of citizens convened by the Mayor (Mr R. S. Black) for the purpose of deciding upon means of inducing the Government to proceed with the erection of the new post office. The meeting was attended by many prominent citizens, and was entirely nonpolitical in character. The delegates had had no opportunity of consulting, the committee in order to ascertain whether it wished to be represented at the meeting, and one of them had since been selected to speak at the mass meeting to held in the Town Hall next Thursday. The committee approved of the action of its delegates in attending the meeting in question. Members stated that they believed the work of erecting the new post office should be proceeded with at once as it was long. overdue. It was not a political matter, and the committee did not wish to make it a political matter. It was a civic matter in which all sections of the community were deeply interested. It was true that local members of Parliament had previously pressed upon the Government the duty of proceeding with this work, but they (lid that, not as Labour members, but as members of Parliament with a particular duty to their own city. It was hoped that this latest effort of the citizens to have immediately erected a post office worthy of the city would meet with the success it deserved. RELIEF WORKERS AND WET ■WEATHER. Several relief workers belonging to groups 219 and 211 asked the committee to protest against the conditions of relief workers in wet weather. It was reported that during the current week, which was a very wet one, about 30 men were employed above the Southern reservoir. There was no natural shelter in the vicinity, but a tent that would accommodate about 12 'men had beep erected near the job. The remainder of the men had to stand qut in the mud and rain whilst eating their lunch. They could not cease work because they could not afford to lose the money they would earn by remaining at work. The boots worn by many of them wci» sadly in need of repair, and the men could not keep their feet dry. It was said that for such a job gum boots should have been supplied. It was pointed out that work of such a nature under such conditions was particularly hard upon men (aud more particularly upon middle-aged and elderly men) whose lives previously had been spent in offices and factories. It was alleged that such men could not stand up to the weather conditions when employed at outside work, and as a result they were fre quently laid up with sciatica, lumbago, pleurisy, and other similar complaints. The committee was of the opinion that such treatment was quite unwarranted. It was generally admitted that the work upon which relief workers were employed was not reproductive, but was supplied merely because the Government had set its face against unemployment relief payment without work. The committee contended that, even if the Government’s policy in this respect were sound as a general principle (which was not admitted), it certainly could not be construed as an abrogation of the principle if relief workers, in order to gain the scanty sustenance allowance provided, were released from the obligation of working on wet days. The committee decided to communicate with the proper authorities on the matter.