UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18763, 20 July 1935, Page 4

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF

BOOTS AND BLANKETS CONDITIONS RELAXED RECENT BOARD DECISIONS Conditions relating to the issue ot blankets aud boots, to supplement the relief available in the, form ot wages or sustenance from the Unemployment Board, lmve been relaxed considerably in recent weeks, the- latest information circulated among the rebel workers indicating a desire on the part- of the board to meet all cases of real hardship as reasonably us the funds at its command will allow.

Married men have recently been issued with blankets, in eases where the, circumstances have seemed to warrant the issues, aud now single men are to have the. benefit, of this distribution as well, providing they are not living at. home under conditions which make the issue unnecessary. The board evidently has given consideration at last to the plight of single men who arc not provided with > house-room' by their parents or other members of their families, but have, to lind and part-furnish at least their own lodgings. To these men the issue of blankets is to be. made available, and arrangements are being made to supply the blankets immediately.

lu addition, men who are proceeding to camp, and who have no suitable loots, are now to be issued with footwear, when they can satisfy the district officers of the Unemployment Board that they are in actual need of the assistance. One really good feature of this provision _ is that the men will not he obliged to work oil' the cost of the boots, as a charge against their earnings in camp. Moreover, in justified cases the issue is to be made irrespective of whether the men are going to relief camps or to ordinary Public Works Department camps where standard-wage conditions apply. Belief camps have not been the contentious subject this winter that they were in previous years, and the experience in Gisborne bears out the impression that relaxation of conditions in the camps have removed the main objections previously held by workers against accepting work in tree-planting and other forms of country work. About 40 -single men from Gisborne have undertaken to proceed to tree-planting camps in the Tattpo area during recent weeks, and it is likely that more will accept this class of work, while awaiting an improvement, in the general demand for unskilled labor. ■