UNEMPLOYMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 19 (Supplement)

UNEMPLOYMENT.

REPORT OP BOARD’S SCHEME. Local bodies in many parts of the Dominion have displayed considerable interest concerning the reception accorded the Unemployment Board’s Schemes 4A, 48, and 5, 'states the chairman of the Board (Hon. S. G. Smith), because it was recognised that they possessed more stable potentialities than the earlier schemes, which were devised to give temporary relief to the unemployed. Under 4A the Board subsidised the wages of men employed by farmers at the rate of 15/- per week for a single man and 25/- per week for a married man, and up to March 18th the subsidies paid amounted to £924. Of the workers, 424 were single and 174 married. Scheme 4B covers contract labour for developmental work on farms, which is subsidised by the Board to the extent of 33 1-3 per cent, of labour costs. The response to this scheme has been 34 contracts, involving 87 men, and the total subsidies paid to March 18th have been £777/9/-. Single men are given two days’ work each week, married men with one dependent child v under 16 receive three days’ work, and married men with two or more dependent children are given four days’ work under Scheme No. 5. As complete returns of the number of men employed were not at first sent in by local bodies, these are available only from March 7th, and disclose a total of 56,630 who have shared in the different jobs up to March 18th. Of this total, there were 22,418 two-day men, 17,125 three day men, and 17,087 four day men. The original allocation to this scheme was £150,000, but up to March 18th the total commitments amounted to £165,925/14/-. The following are detailed estimates covering the operation of Scheme No. 5 in the four centres and the rest of the Dominion for the week ended March 14th:— Centre. Class A Class B Class C Wages

Auckland 1,649 1,581 1.690 £ 10,360 Wellington 1,035 736 435 4,212 Christchurch . 836 842 710 5,033 Dunedin .. 746 576 372 3,317 Other Centres 4,555 3,020 3,845 23,863 Total .. .. 8.821 6.755 7,052 46,785 The totals were.—Class A 4.920, B 2,206, 0 2388, D 1,694 grand total 22,628.