PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 17

PUBLIC WORKS CAMPS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I notice that in conversation with a Daily Times reporter Mr Bromley, a member of the Unemployed Board, stated that men on Public Works Deppartmcnt jobs could find food at a cost of 10s to 9s a week, and that they could earn from £2 15s a week to 16s a day. I have had a long experience on permanent Public Works jobs' in both The mates who worked with me on various jobs and myself could not find food at a cost of 9s per week. T t costs us £5 a month for food, and with the cost of coal on top of this, a sum more like £6 a month is required. This will show you that I disagree with Mr Bromley’s statements. A man like Mr Bromley, with a salary of £4OO per year, might live on 9s per week because he has no manual hard work to do. I would like to see him wheeling concrete barrows or mixing concrete on food costing 9s per week. 1 say that if men go into camp they require substantial food. The way to test my statements is to apply to the grocers, butchers, and bakers, who know how much it costs the men, because they get paid every month. Now, as for Mr Bromley saying that men can earn Ids per day, there are few men eai’ning this. 1 have spoken to men on the Naseby dam, who are all married men, and they tell me their average is Bs, 9s, and 10s a day. I have seen a few relief camps in my time, some of which were a disgrace to the country. Why, however, should the people keep on sub-

scribing funds for food and clothes for able-bodied men? It is all very well to subscribe for the needs of people who are sick or bedridden. I am up against the Unemployment Board and against the Government, which is always asking the public for subscriptions for the relief of unemployment. The sooner the public gets the workers on a standard wage the better. No able-bodied men in this country ask for charity. I read some time ago that Mr Coates, in a speech at Wellington, said that he was not going to have a nation of navvies. He is in danger of soon having a nation of cadgers. Just before the Napier earthquake what did the Public Works Department do to the married men who were working on the Napier line? It shifted the men to the Arapuni works and left their wives at the camp in Napier. If the Public Works Department or Labour Bureau were to tell the men the solid truth about camps and wages, they might get men to go. I myself do not wish to seek a Public Works job, because I was victimised when I was asked to sign a declaration concerning a complaint from which I was not buffering on the Waitaki works—l am, etc., June 16. Victimised,