GISBORNE AERODROME

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18528, 15 October 1934, Page 11

GISBORNE AERODROME

(To the Editor of the Herald.) Sir, —Your leading article of the 13th inst. on the aerodrome is a complete reversal to your previous article on the same subject.. Evidently you have altered your views,, owing to the tirade by Mr. Nolan at the Council meeting on the 9th inst., who would not haye made such a misleading and unwarranted attack on the council and the local unemployed if he had availed himself of the true facts of tile position.. . The relief workers have pot been misinformed in regard to details of construction and rates of pay; in fact, they haye corresppudepeie from if. fldiabLe which neither thje Public Work? Department, the Unemployment Board, or day other authority can refute. You state in your article men woykmg on the Dunedin aerodrome are earning from 15s to 17s a day, 'apd that Mr. Coleman verified that statement, Vyiiat happwd to fife men at Wanganui who were earning similar amounts? They were reduced to such a low rate that they were unable to earn more than 9s a day. If you want that statement verified, apply to th,e Wanganui Borough Council, who were compelled to reduce the rates of pay owing to men earning too much. His Worship the Mayor, Mr. Jackson, explained that would happen to the Gisbprife men, as Mr. Bromley was told by the Public Works Department representative when Mr. Jackson and Mr. Coleman were interviewing the Prime Minister on the matter. You seem to have forgotten the claims of the men who are expected to do the work. Yon should at least give some consideration to them apd their families. There is no need to further advise the men of the terni3. No camouflage about making it clear to; them is needed. It was thoroughly investigated at the time, and the same terms will pot he accepted by the men. Continuous employment may be considered, but two or three days a week will never be accepted on the aerodrome job. ft is futile for you, or Mr. Nolan, to say that private enterprise is not interested. We are not so ignorant as we may appear, and tho time has arrived when men shall be paid a living wage for work they are expected to do. Many of the relief workers are returned soldiers with families, and living in semi-starvation, and with no other prospects if what you are advocating in regards to the aerodrome is carried out—Yours, etc., L. LORD, Hon. Assistant-Secretary, Unemployed Workers’ Movement.