DONATION FROM M.E.D. FUNDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19241, 1 December 1930, Page 9

DONATION FROM M.E.D. FUNDS.

MONEY APPROPRIATED FOR RELIEF PURPOSES.

“I feel that at the present juncture the City Council cannot do too much to try and relieve the position,” said Councillor J. W. Beanland, to-day, in replying to criticism of the action of the Municipal Electricity Department in' promising a donation of £6OO for unemployment relief purposes. Councillor Beanland said that the council had a heavy responsibility thrust upou it, and as it had no means of increasing its ordinary revenue at present, it was prepared to get money from any source it could for the relief of unemployment. Legal Difficulties.

With regard to the donation of £6OO from the funds of the M.E.D., he said that the position was not yet definite. He understood that it was the wish of the Electricity Committee to make a donation of £6OO for unemployment relief, £4OO of that amount to be allocated to the depots and £2OO to the fund for the provision of work before Christmas. As, however, there were legal difficulties in the way, the Mayor and Councillor D, G. Sullivan and himself had waited on the Hon P. A. de la Perrelle, Minister of Internal Affairs, and asked him if he would agree to the passing of legislation. validating the grant. The Minister gave an assurance to that effect, and on that understanding the money could be paid over. Councillor Beanland contended that the M.E.D. should have the right to make a donation if it thought fit. In this instance the offer was made spontaneously by the Electricity Committee, and not on the suggestion of the council. Grant From Quarries Account. In addition to the donation of £6OO from the funds of the M.E.D., the sum of £SOO has been transferred from the Hals well Quarries Account to the unemployment fund. Councillor Beanland said that there were no legal obstacles to this being done, and the council had agreed to the transfer. The position was that the fund of £9OO, which was being used for the provision of work to tide a number of the unemployed over the Christmas period, was made up of £2OO from the M.E.D. funds, £SOO from the Halswell Quarries account and £2OO which had been saved in the administration account of the council. The money would be subsidised by the Government and by the Unemployment Board, and would enable from ten days’ to a fortnight’s work to be provided for about three hundred men. A Trading Department. With regard to criticism of the Electricity Committee’s action in offering money for unemployment relief, Councillor Beanland said that the council made donations to such bodies as the Technical College Board of Governors, and he thought that the M.E.D., being a trading department, should be at liberty to make donations for public purposes. When the West Coast Earthquake Relief Fund appeal was before the public last year, a proposal was made by the general manager of the M.E.D. that a large sum, running into several thousands of pounds, should be given to the fund from the M.E.D. reserves, but the council did not adopt the suggestion.