“MEETINGS ONLY FIASCO”

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 9

“MEETINGS ONLY FIASCO”

ASHBURTON UNEMPLOYMENT LAST GATHERING OF COMMITTEE WILL NOT CARRY ON ANY MORE. EXPRESSION OF DISSATISFACTION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Ashburton, Jan. 26. No satisfaction having been received to several appeals to the Unemployment Board for more co-operation and more confidence in members, the Ashburton Unemployment Committee. has come to the conclusion that its meetings are only a fiasco and that it is useless to carry on. The chairman, the Mayor of Ashburton (Mr. W. H. Woods), said the committee was working in the dark. The board apparently was afraid to show something to the committee. He considered that the board’s action was a breach of faith. “I feel very reluctant to say that this committee will not meet again,” he stated. “Its efforts are clearly not appreciated and its actions apparently do not justify the confidence of the board. Small districts are not getting a fair deal and any savings made there are going to benefit the large centres.” The following motion was moved by Mr. G. Kelly, county clerk, and seconded by Mr. W. G. Gallagher, chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, and carried unanimously: “That this committee feels that under the new regulations of the Unemployment Board in regard to the allocations, its services in that respect are not approved and it therefore will meet only when other matters necessitate it.”

The Mayor was authorised to send a letter to the board stating that the action had been necessary as a result of the lack of co-operation between the board and committee and the withholding of essential information regarding the basis of allocations. INSURANCE SCHEME SUGGESTED. HAWKE’S BAY LOCAL BODIES MEET Dannevirke, Jan. 26. A conference of representatives, of. the local bodies of the town and district and of societies and relief workers was held last evening to consider the avenues for the reabsorption of unemployed in industry. ■ The conference decided firstly that a strong local effort be organised to investigate suitable closer settlement in southern Hawke's Bay; and secondly, that a recommendation be made the unemployment authorities that they obtain and give full publicity to the British Government’s unemployment insurance scheme and that full consideration be given to the adoption of that scheme for New Zealand in preference to the present schemes of unemployment relief which in the opinion of this conference are derogatory to the welfare of the country. DEPUTATION FROM GISBORNE. MINISTER DECLINES REQUESTS. < ? Wellington, Last Night. A request that Gisborne relief workers under the No.. 5 scheme should be placed on the same scale of remuneration as men in the cities was made to the Minister of Employment (Hon. A. Hamilton) to-day by a deputation representing the Cook County Council, the Gisborne Returned Soldiers’ Association, the Gisborne Borough Council and the Gisborne Retail Shopkeepers’ Association. The speakers urged that the present rates of pay were inadequate, especially in view of the fact that there was very little casual work offering and the unemployed and-their families were suffering severely. In reply Mr. Hamilton said .it would be quite impossible to grant the request. He pointed out that the Unemployment Board’s allocations during the winter and spring had sometimes exceeded its income, and in summer it was necessary to reduce the amounts. As far as country districts were concerned they had benefited more than the cities from the board’s other schemes and there was no doubt the need for relief was greater in the cities. One of the effects of introducing a uniform scale throughout the Dominion would be to attract men from farm work, which would be undesirable.