DISTRESS AT TANGARAKAU

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1933, Page 8

DISTRESS AT TANGARAKAU

DISCHARGED RAILWAY WORKERS. ATTITUDE OF LOCAL BODIES. “Seemingly the Stratford local bodies have achieved their end now that the Stratford-Main Trunk railway is completed but they have not given any thought to the men who have lost and will lose their means of livelihood—men who have spent their earnings in the district and have benefited Stratford business people.” That statement was contained in a letter which the Stratford Hospital Board received yesterday from the secretary of the Tangarakau Relief Committee (Mr. C. S. Powick). Mr. Powick thanked the chairman for having placed the position of the unemployed at Tangarakau before the deputy-chairman of the Unemployment Board, Mr. J. S. Jessep, when he visited Stratford, but the committee considered that the various local bodies in and around Stratford had been rather dilatory, in comparison with those at the Ohura end, in approaching the Government to find further work for the men who had recently been discharged from railway construction work. Unless something was done soon a large number of applications for charitable aid would be made.

“They say that Stratford has done nothing for them, yet Tangarakau men have been employed in the Puniwhakau district for 12 months and are still there,” Mr. L. Bunn remarked. “I wrote to Mr. Jessep about this matter and as we have not received any applications for relief since the letter was written on September 21 it appears that the men must have received relief,” the chairman (Mr. W. L. Kennedy) stated. No action was taken.