CAMP AT URENUI BLACK

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1934, Page 6

CAMP AT URENUI BLACK

OBJECTION TO COMPULSION NOTICES RECEIVED FOR TO-DAY. POSITION OF MR. ?• E. STAINTON. That all married relief workers camps should be declared black so long as men. are compelled to go to them was the effect of a decision by a meeting of relief workers at New Plymouth on Saturday night when the subject particularly under discussion was the camp at Urenui. It is reported that the 15 men were required for the camp have been notified by the Labour Department to present themselves for transport to Urenui today. Seven of them have signified their intention to go and it is understood that six nave had medical or other excuses accepted. The remaining two have had their excuses refused, and it is they who will be affected by Saturday night’s resolution. ...... Messrs. A. Wallace (president of the union), P. Collings and J. Whelan were deputed to meet the unemployment committee with the object of securing reinstatement of the two men who would otherwise be penalised for refusing to go to the camp to-day. It will be suggested to the committee that it should endeavour to fill the camp with nonunion men. The same deputation will wait on the Ministers’ Association to ask i for its co-operation in an effort to obtain a withdrawal of the rule compelling men to go to the camp. Further, the association will be asked to support a request that the allocations to New Plymouth for relief purposes should be on the same basis as those for the large centres. COMPLAINT TO LOCAL BODIES. Strong exception was taken by the meeting to the attitude of local bodies towards the relief workers of New Plymouth, said Mr. Wallace to a reporter. He referred particularly to the difference between the allocations to New Plymouth and those to the larger centres. The opinion of the meeting was that the local bodies were apparently not conversant with the position, none of them having done anything in. the direction of obtaining larger allocations. On the other hand the Ministers Association had announced its willingness to help, and the relief workers appreciated what that organisation was doing and was prepared to do. Referring to the Urenui camp, Mr. Wallace said it had been a shock to the meeting to learn that the clause compelling men to go into the camp was still in existence. It had been understood from Mr. P. E. Stainton, who. had acted as mediator between the Clifton County Council and the Relief Workers Union, that a basis of settlement would be the abolition.of compulsion, so that the men could choose whether they would go into the camp. Recalling allegations made at a recent meeting of relief workers that Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., had deliberately absented himself from the meeting, Mr. Wallace told the gathering ' on Saturday night that it was a fact that Mr. Smith had been sent to Wellington to transact urgent borough business. He said that Mr. Smith had acted in their interests while at Wellington, but contended that it was only through the force of public opinion at New Plymouth that he had been influenced to do so. The meeting - expressed opposition to Mr. Smith and carried unanimously a motion of no-confidence in him as Parliamentary representative for the district. STATEMENT BY MR. STAINTON. On the reference to him being brought to his notice last night Mr. Stainton told a reporter that he had not been aware a meeting of relief workers was to be held on Saturday night. Had he known he would have attended. “I was surprised to learn a meeting had been held,” he said when informed of the matter. “It would seem, strange that as the meeting was called specially to discuss the Urenui deviation I was not notified either* by the chairman or some other responsible person and at least given the opportunity of attending so that first-hand information could be supplied. As a matter of fact, apart from the one occasion on which j met the union executive following my meeting with the works committee of the Clifton County Council, when a tentative arrangement was made, apparently no interest has been displayed in the matter by any executive officer of the Relief Workers’ Union; I have not been communicated with, nor have any inquiries been made of me up to the present moment. I was not informed that the men had received notices or of any other developments.” Mr. Stainton reviewed the part he had taken in the matter. With Mr. S. G. Smith he had met the works committee of the Clifton County Council and had come to a tentative arrangement, subject to confirmation by the council. A subsequent meeting of the council did not . confirm the arrangement, however, and decided to send the chairman and engineer to Wellington to confer with th'e Highways Board and Unemployment Board with the object of securing a financial arrangement on a better basis as far as the county was concerned. NO WORD FROM COUNCIL. Since the return of the council’s representatives from Wellington he had not been communicated with by the county council, apart from a telephone message from the engineer several days ago advising that they had fixed up matters at Wellington satisfactorily and that he would be coming to New Plymouth in the near future to confer with the borough engineer and Mr. Stainton because he wanted their co-operation in connection wjth the selection of the most suitable men for the job. “I have never seen the county engineer since he telephoned,” proceeded Mr. Stainton, “and up to the present I have received no further communication from him or the county council.

I was surprised to learn on Saturday that a number of men had received notice to go into camp on Monday. Apparently the county council and the Unemployment Board are making arrangements direct, preferring not to deal with any other representatives. While recognising there was no obligation on the county to do so, I would personally have appreciated it, even as a matter of courtesy, if I had been given the opportunity of discussing the matter further with the Clifton County Council.” Mr. S. G. Smith was asked to comment on the attitude of the meeting towards him. It was quite obvious, he said, that the relief workers at New Plymouth were being used for party propaganda by a certain section of his political opponents. He had as much sympathy with the relief workers as any man in the town, and he pointed out that while Minister of Employment he had given his very best in evolving schemes for the benefit of those without work. one met hod by which the allocations for relief work can be increased—by increasing taxation,” proceeded Mr. Smith. “That is obvious. The money collected for relief work, more than £4,000,000 a year, works out at an average of a little over £1 a week for each relief worker. I kpow that some of the people who have publicly voiced their sympathy with the relief worker and said that he should receive more money are opposed t£> increased tion.”