NO SUBSIDY

Southland Times, Issue 21273, 19 December 1930, Page 5

NO SUBSIDY

LOCAL RELIEF WORKS

EMPLOYMENT OF MEN CEASES ALL RETURNED SOLDIERS Contrary to expectations the £2 for £1 subsidy on relief works undertaken by local bodies, virtually promised by the Unemployment Board, has not materialized, and the upshot, as far as the relief work recently made available by the City Council in conjunction with the Returned Soldiers’ Association is concerned, is that 62 men, all returned soldiers, have been added to the list of the unemployed. This unwelcome news was made known yesterday by the Mayor (Mr J. D. Campbell), who expressed regret that- such a position should have been created, but added that the council had carried out its part of the obligation and at present could do no more. Mr Campbell explained that when the Returned Soldiers’ Association self-help scheme and other relief works were undertaken by the City Council it was understood that a subsidy of £2 for £1 would be received from the Unemployment Board. The board requested that local bodies should make an endeavour to put works in hand before the Christmas period in order to help as many men as possible to earn some money to tide them over the festive season. In response to this request, the City Council immediately lodged applications for subsidies on various works, and put the works in hand at once. These works were unproductive, and such that the council, in ordinary circumstances, would not have undertaken. For some reason, however, the Unemployment Board had not as yet carried out its promises, with the result that 62 returned soldiers were paid off last evening, and they would probably be idle until other provision was made for them. The laxity of the board was unexplainable at present, as no reply had been received to any of the council’s telegrams conveying the urgency of action on the board’s part. “The council has sent three telegrams to the board requesting a decision in the matter,” commented his Worship, “and the board has been advised that a number of men will have to be discharged as the works cannot be proceeded with without the subsidy. It is most disappointing that the council should receive no satisfaction when it has undertaken so much and had endangered its own finances in order to employ’ as many men as possible before Christmas. The board has apparently ignored the council’s telegrams, as no reply has been received.” When apprised of the situation, the secretary of the R.S.A. (Mr S. McDougall) said that the keenest disappointment was felt. The Mayor, he added, had done everything possible to get the subsidy, and the men appreciated what had been done by the council to help them. They fully realized the unfortunate nature of the position, but that did not help them in their plight. SCALES OF WAGES BOARD WILL NOT INTERFERE. STATEMENT BY DEPUTY CHAIRMAN-. (Per United Press Association). Masterton, December 18. Notwithstanding anything that appeared in the Press of what Mr W. J. Polson (the Dominion president of the N.Z. Farmers’ Union) said on the public platform, the cold, hard fact remained, said Mr Burdekin (deputy chairman of the Unemployment Board) to-night, that it was the policy of the Unemployment Board not to interfere with existing scales of wages in force in New Zealand.

Employers and employees were left absolutely free to make their own bargains as to wages. The Act gave the board no power to fix wages and the board was not usurping a function it did not possess. It was leaving local bodies to fix rates according to their own local conditions and the indivdual and to do so by mutual agreement. The board merely subsidized Uf to 7/- per day.

ENTRY INTO NEW ZEALAND

UNEMPLOYED FROM AUSTRALIA. GOVERNMENT ACTION URGED. Dunedin, December 18. Consequent on the remark by a member at the Otago Hospital Board meeting tonight that a number of recently-arrived Australians had visited the relief depots in Dunedin, the board unanimously passed the following resolution: “That the Government should take immediate steps to prevent unemployed from Australia enter--* ing New Zealand.” It was resolved that a copy of the resolution should be sent to the acting-Prime Minister (the Hon. E. A. Ransom).