BALDWIN ASKS FOR £250,000 VOTE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18640, 18 December 1928, Page 11

BALDWIN ASKS FOR £250,000 VOTE.

WILL GIVE INSTANT AID TO MINERS. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) J Received December 19, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, December 18. The Lord Mayor of London’s Fund for the relief of the distress in the mining areas now exceeds £155.000. The Lord Mayor’s Fund is the largest of many that are being subscribed to, and throughout the country organisations are also engaged in collecting clothing, foodstuffs and other gifts in kind. The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons to-day that the Government is not opposed to asking Parliament to authorise certain measures to deal with the present emergency in the distressed mining areas. It was very important that these measures should be considered in addition to the policy which the Government had already initiated and were resolved to pursue. Apart altogether from the heavy cost of normal social services, including unemployment insurance, school medical services, and maternity and child welfare, and in addition to the proposals for the relief of industry from local taxation, special provisions made by Parliament for the assistance of unemployed generally during the current financial year amounted to £1.700,000 over and above the Budget estimates. The special measures which the Government would now ask Parliament to pass were authority to grant to the Lord Mayor’s Fund £1 for every £1 received in voluntary subscription and to make an immediate grant of £150.000 to the fund as an equivalent of the money already subscribed to the fund. Mr Baldwin said that the transfer of unemploved from the distressed areas was proceeding steadily, but was hindered because married men found it difficult to leave their homes unless special assistance were available for their removal and the re-settlement -of ‘heir femihes. He would therefore ask Parliament to vote £IOO.OOO for removal of families.—Australian Press Association-United Service.