STAFF REDUCED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19898, 28 March 1939, Page 2

STAFF REDUCED

KtOSPECTINQ FOR GOLD Bw METHOD OF CONTROL B\es DEPARTMENT’S TASK from April 1 next the gold-pros-scheme, which since its incephas been under the control of the Division of the Labour will be controlled directly Mines Department. There vvi.l a curtailment in the number r > Bcutive officers. • operations of the scheme will be the direction of the inspectors of flHes, while Messrs. K. J. MacKinnon and C. E. Collyer, sanior mining supervisor and engineer respectively on the West Coast, are to be transferred to the Mines Department and will continue to supervise the field work m the district. The services of five mining supervisors on the West Coast will be required no longer, and they are to complete their service with the department on March 31. They are then to be granted leave according to their length of service, and thus some will go off or*. April 8 and others on April 15. In the meantime all possible endeavours are 'being made to find suitable employment for these officers. The change in the control of the prospecting operations has been under consideration for some time, but it has been 'hastened through the general rearrangements in regard to the staff of the Employment Division of the Department of Labour consequent upon its amalgamation with the Social Security Department. No alteration Is to take place in regard to actual prospecting operations, which extend from Takaka and Collingwood in the north to the Otago boundary in the south. Between 350 and 400 men are employed on the scheme within this area, and some comprehensive work is being carried out, particularly in reefing in the Inaagahua district. The services of the prospectors are to be retained.