HELP FOR DISTRESS AREAS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20668, 5 March 1937, Page 9

HELP FOR DISTRESS AREAS

MAKING EMPLOYMENT AVAILABLE GENEROUS ADDITIONS TO RELIEF PAY British Official Wireless (Received March 4, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, March 3. Negotiations have been carried through resulting in an agreement between the Nuffield Trustees and the Special Areas Reconstruction Association, Ltd., for White Haven Colliery, Ltd., to be acquired by the Coltness Iron Company, which will take over and work the White Haven Colliery and the Cokiv plant at the colliery, which is in the distressed area of Cumberland. Employment will be available for a large number of workers at present unemployed. BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS MORE GENEROUS CONCESSIONS British Official Wireless (Received March 4, 5.5 p.m.) RUGBY, March 3. In moving the adoption of a resolution approving the draft order dealing with the reduction from six to three days of waiting the period before unemployment benefit is paid, and additional days lengthening the period of benefit enjoyed by men who worked regularly during the past five years, while drawing relatively little in benefit, the Minister of Labour (Mr Ernest Brown), speaking in the House of Commons, said the receipts of the fund for 1938 amounted to £65,707,238, being £1,009,000 more than the previous year, in spite of the fact that from July 7 there had been a reduction of Id each from the contributions of employers and workers. State payments, on the other hand, amounted to £6,045,000 less tl.an in 1935. This was due to the increase in employment and the decrease in unemployment. The advisory committee reported a surplus of £17,537,470, so that the accumulated balance r.t the end of the year was nearly £39,000,000, or £6,700,000 more than the Committee had estimated in their previous report. There was no opposition to the motion, but some Labour criticism was made that the concession should, in view of the state of the fund, be more generous.