RELIEF WORK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18559, 20 November 1934, Page 5

RELIEF WORK

LOPPING OP TREES THE POSITION EXPLAINED Some misunderstanding has arisen through the publication of correspondcnee .In the Herald regarding the use of relief labor for the falling or loppin<' of trees 'that- interfere with the lines of the ‘Post and Telegraph Departmeiit, it hgving boon made In appear that the department .Was benefiting from this icse ot unemployed men for necessary work. It is explained, however, that- tins work is not being done for the department at all, and that its only.connection with it is in a supervisory capacity, mainly for the protection of its own interests’. Under the Act, the department has the power to require any property owner to remove trees which might endanger telegraph or telephone lines, the responsibility and expense falling, not on the department, but on the owner of the property. It is work of this nature that has been carried out in this district, and which has been the subject of criticism.

It is pointed out that the men employed have been engaged by the Cook County Council under the No. 5 scheme. The presence of a Post mid Telegraph Department official, it is explained, is to indicate the extent to which cutting is necessary, and, mainly, to ensure that there is no interruption of communication by damage to lines during the falling operations. The marking of the pay-sheets, “P. and T„” has no actual reference to the department, but i # s merely done for book-keeping purposes by the, Cook County , Council, to show what job the men have been employed upon.