Council to Spend £55,000 on Relief

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 11

Council to Spend £55,000 on Relief

WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED TWO SCHEMES TO PROCEED Should there be no hitch in the raising of a loan, the City Council will proceed immediately with works for the relief of unemployment in Auckland. At a special meeting last evening two schemes, one estimated to cost £28,200 and the other £26,593, were approved. The former is expected to carry a subsidy of about £IO,OOO and the other £7,000. SCHEME number one contemplates the formation of what is known as the sixth section of the Waterfront Road, from the eastern end of Ivohimarama Bay to the western end of St. Heliers. This portion follows the foreshore round Gower’s Point and is the most expensive of the seven sections into which the Waterfront Road from Mission Bay to the Strand is divided. The council has in hand for this part £5,000 raised by the Tamaki Road Board to this end before the amalgamation. Deducting the subsidy the council will have to raise £13,200. Scheme number two provides for small works as follow: Estd. Estd. cost subsidy Western Springs Playing Area £S,SOO £3,200 Western Springs Stadium, Cinder Track, Offices, etc 4,643 464 Orakei Bridge Road . . 7,200 2,100 Gladstone Road Extn. 4,650 930 Balfour Road Extn. .. 1,300 260 Total. £26,593 £6,954 The three last-named works had already been allocated in a previous streets improvements schedule, and the money will not have to be found in a new loan. The only money to be raised for this is therefore the £13,443 for the Western Springs playing area and the completion of the stadium scheme, less the subsidy of nearly £7,000. The council will accordingly require to borrow about £6,500. In short, Auckland expects to obtain for the two schemes a subsidy of £17,000 by raising a loan of approximately £20,000. A poll of ratepayers will not be necessary as special legislation enables the council to raise the money if approval is given by the Local Government Loans Board. The schemes are being undertaken in consequence of an offer by the Prime Minister of £25,000 to each of the four main centres as a subsidy on wages expenditure in connection with any work the cities might find for the relief of unemployed. In moving the adoption of the second scheme the Mayor, Mr. G. Baildon, said he believed the completion of all seven sections of the waterfront road, estimated to cost £93,000, too large a scheme in view of tho present condition of the city finances. The expenditure of such a sum was not justified. “The £26,593 scheme seems to me to be the best we could begin with,” said the Mayor. “We would be completing several works already begun, at the same time finding work for a number of unemployed.” Cr. A. J. Entrican seconded and the work was approved without discussion. Cr. T. Bloodworth, who moved the adoption of the first scheme, said that by the completion of the sixth section of the Waterfront Road residents of St. Heliers would be given direct access to the city by the new route. Seconding, Cr. G. W. Hutchison said the work would have to be done and the present seemed an appropriate opportunity. Fie did not favour a proposal to acquire property for the purpose of taking the road up Gower’s Point but agreed that it should run round the point on the level. This scheme was also approved without dissent. To Cr. Grey Campbell, the ActingCity Engineer, Mr. J. Tyler, said section six would ultimately find work for at least 100 men, and 60 would be employed at the outset. The Western Springs playing area would absorb about 40. TWO YEARS’ EXPENDITURE During the past two years the Council has spent £157,493 in unemployment relief, according to a report by Mr. Baildon. The sum of £IOO,OOO had ben raised for tram track improvements as a relief work, and £IO,OOO worth of city debentures had been sold to finance other special works. An unemployment committee had raised £261 by street collections. The Patriotic Society had contributed £3,806, the War Memorial Committee £2,400, £j.nd the Public Works Department had paid £22,263 in subsidies. The Mayor’s unemployment relief fund had. yielded £10,024. Besides this, the Mayor said, the council had accelerated its loan works, and had provided additional relief by way of works finance out of revenue.