SUSTENANGE MEN.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13470, 26 January 1937, Page 4

SUSTENANGE MEN.

20 BEFORE COURT. FALSE DECLARATIONS MADE. Electric Teleg-rapb—Tress Association NEW PLYMOUTH, Last Night. Charges of making jalse declarations to the district employ men t officer were preferred against 20 sustenance men in the New Plymouth Police Court. It was alleged that for the purpose of obtaining benefits for themselves under the Employment Promotion * Act, the men failed to declare their earnings over a certain pel iod. In the majority of cases. the Magistrate, Mr W. H. Woodward, took the course followed by the Magistrate at Auckland recently and fined the men the amount of the sustenance they had been overpaid. “These men were working oil the* ship Napier Star on October 9 and 10 and on October 12 they had to make a declaration of their earnings for the 1 purpose ol obtaining sustenance,’" stated Mr E. V. Jones, district employment officer. •‘They omitted to declare their earnings or full amounts, with tlie result that sustenance totalling £22 17s was overpaid, although tin- individual amounts were small. These cases are taken mainly as a warning to others.” He added that the department takes a serious view of the matter as two-thirds of the men on sustenance made false and it looks as if some concerted : t>»n was taken. ‘*lt is no fault of the labour Department,” said counsel for the men. “All these men had l>een given fi* understand that t-liis was not an offence. I cannot say how this information was given but it was. They recognise now it is an offence and it has been going on all over the country. More than that I do not care to say*.” ‘ This information could not have been given by any authority.** remarked the Magistrate. “No’ replied Mr Moss. “It came from sources which are not official and I think it has led the men into doing this. It has been looked on as not being an offence. The men realise now that they h ive committed a breach of the law.**