SUSTENANCE PAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 4 May 1938, Page 10

SUSTENANCE PAY

DISTRESSED FARMERS FLOOD SUFFERERS RAWKE'S BAY RELIEF SUBSIDY FOR LABOUR (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day. "The Minister ot Labour, the Hon. 11. T. Armstrong, has made arrangements for the assistance under the Labour Department's 4a scheme to be granted to farmers who have suffered loss as a result of the recent floods," said the Hon. W. E. Barnard yesterday, speaking on behalf of the executive of the relief committee.

"Assistance will be granted by way of a weekly sustenance allowance, payable to those farmers who have lost all their income and who have no financial resources available to meet their living expenses," Mr. Barnard continued. "The sustenance rates are as follows: Single men, 15s; married men, 255; married men with one child, 295; married men with two children, 335; married men with 'throe i'dyldren, 37is ; ; married men with four children, 41s; married men with five children, 455; married men with six children, 495: married men with seven or more children, 535. Revision of Rates

"The executive of the relief committee is to discuss with the Government the revision of the sustenance rates," said Mr. Barnard. "The question of the supply of labour to farmers is also being investigated and the Labour Department will provide assistance by way of subsidy under Scheme 48."

"Normally, under this scheme, the subsidy represents 50 per cent of the contract price, but the Minister of Labour has informed me that, in approved cases, he is prepared to agree to the whole of the labour cost being met from the employment promotion fund. "In a good number of cases it will not be convenient to carry out the work by contract, and to meet the position' arrangements will be made in such cases to have the work carried out on day labour under the supervision of the farmers themselves, or by employment of gangs of men under the control of the Public Works Department."