UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1930, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF.

Residents of New Plymouth and district will probably accept with resignation the decision of the New Plymouth Borough Council to make a further advance of £5OO to the local funds for the relief of unemployment. At the same time there will be general concurrence in the views expressed by a member of the council, Mr. J. Brown. He urged that the grant must be regarded as tinal. Jt will ‘enable employment, to be found for two months for the 180 married men who are seeking work, and.by that time the newly appointed Unemployment Board should be functioning properly. As -Mr. Brown pointed out, ratepayers have been asked as taxpayers to find the Government subsidy on local funds, as citizens to make voluntary contributions, and now they must meet the levies of the national system of relief. As regards the relief works themselves there was some force in Mr. Brown’s contentions that they would prove a responsibility to the borough as well as present improvements. To say this is not to reflect upon the work done by the men employed upon these special jobs. Speaking broadly, they have <riven full value for wages received, but it cannot be gainsaid that' the borough could have got along quite comfortably for many years without spending money on certain improvements that have been made as a means of affording employment to those heeding it. On this point there are bound to be differences of opinion, though there can be none in regard to the urgency' of the unemployment problem. As chairman of the local (relief organisation another member- of the council, Mr. Stainton, was able to give, an assurance that the request . for a grant was regarded by him as the last demand to be/made upon the council for unemployment relief and that future efforts would lie with the national organisation, at least so far as the provision of funds is concerned. It is tb be hoped that experience will prove his views correct. The local relief committee has done its work most creditably, and the fact that a further demand is made upon borough funds is no reflection upon its capability or prudence. On the contrary, but for its careful administration the borough might have been faced .with much heavier expenditure and the rate of relief considerably less fairly adjusted.