RELIEF WORKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 69

RELIEF WORKS.

SELECTION OF APPLICANTS.

THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTITUDE. WELLINGTON, October 7.

The Government’s attitude in regard to the employment of men on relief works was outlined in the Legislative Couneil to-day.

Air R. ArCallum asked the Acting Leader of the Council whether in the engagement of relief -workers the Government would insist that those who could obtain or had given up private employment at fair remuneration would not be engaged by the Government or local bodies, thus causing great inconvenience to primary producers and other employers of labour.

Air R. Alasters replied: “ Labour for Government relief works is engaged through the Government labour bureaux. Every applicant for employment at a bureau is required to state the name and address of his last employer and the occupation which he can undertake, and employment on Government relief works is given only to men who the officers in charge of bureaux find on making full inquiries are unable to obtain other employment. If the honourable gentleman knows of any specific instances where primary producers and other employers of labour have been inconvenienced through men leaving them in the hope of securing employment on Government relief works and will furnish me with particulars thereof they will be inquired into immediately, or if he will supply me with the names and addresses of any employers who require labour the Government will be only too glad to select suitable men for them from the applicants at Government labour bureaux. Some local bodies, especially the larger municipalities, engage labour for their relief works through the Government bureaux or Returned Soldiers’ Associations, while others select men without reference to bureaux. Inquiries which have been made recently show that ouly men urgently in need of employment are given work on local body relief works subsidised by the Government and that married men predominate.