OUT OF WORK.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1922, Page 7

OUT OF WORK.

RETURNED MEN IDLE POSITION IN NEW PLYMOUTH. BOROUGH COUNCIL APPROACHED. Forty-eight unemployed returned soldiers responded to the advertisement in the Press, asking them to register with the Returned Soldiers’ Association at New Plymouth between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. yesterday. Of these 30 were married men, with a total of 38- children dependent upon them, the remaining 18 men being single. The object in asking the men to report was for the purpose of compiling a register of all returned men who are at present out of work, with the object, if possible, of finding relief work for them. Later in the day a conference was held between representatives of the R.S.A. and the New Plymouth Borough Council, there being present the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Gilson), Councillors J. Kibby . and J. Brown, and the general manager (Mr. F. T. Bellringer), the president of the R.S.A. (Mr. A. M. Mac Diarmid), and the secretary (Mr. G. E. Roper). Mrs. C. H. Weston, who has been endeavoring to arouse public interest in the needs of the men who are unemployed, was. also present. The purpose of the conference was to ask the borough representatives if they could not at once commence some of the works which they had to take in hand sooner or later, so as to piovide immediate employment for a number of men who required assistance- at once for themselves and their dependents. The position as it affected the council was explained by the Mayor and the general manager, who pointed out that the £57,000 loan had not ail been raised yet, so that the Borough Council had no money whereby it could subsidise any money raised for the purpose of providing relief work, nor could money from special loan account be transferred for work done, out of the general fund. If the R.S.A. could suggest a way out of the difficulty, the council would be pleacsd to give what assistance possible. The opinion was expressed by Mr. Roper that it was the duty of the council to take some action in the present time of stress. The R.S.A., he said, had a sum of money which could be handed over for such work as was suggested if the Borough Council would subsidise the amount.

The Mayor said the Borough Council Jiad absorbed a good deal of labor on the hydro works, but they were now in the position of having to reduce their staff there because the work was Being completed, la regard to the financial position, he also explained that while a good deal had been said about having raised the loan for the electric power extensions, that money had to go > .lie bank who had advanced the money to enable the work to be proceeded with actually before the loan was raised. He also staiof. that a loan falling due in October had been raised now, and the borough were paying double interest on that xnoney until that time, which increased their difficulties’for the time being. There would be plenty of work by about September and October in connection with the waterworks, but it was impossible to put that work in hand before the pines were received. In regard to the raising of the £57,000 loan, Mrs. Weston asked if it would be feasible to raise some more of that by offering some inducement to people to take up debentures, a public fund being raised to make up the difference between the rate of interest the borough are permitted to pay and that at which they would be taken up, and the discount at which the debentures would be issued. This was thought to be quite a practic. able method of raising some money quickly, and the question of calling a public meeting to arouse interest in a scheme for a fund was left to the Mayor’s discretion. The Mayor said any relief hi the immediate future would have to come from the public. He thought the other local bodies —the Harbor Board, who had raised their loan, and the County Council—should also be appealed to. He said the Finance Committee of the council would meet at once and see what could be done in the way suggested by Mrs. Weston. Mr. Mac Diarmid then said if that was done his association would make an offer of £l5O towards making up the difference in the interest payable.