RELIEF SCHEMES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 191, 13 August 1931, Page 7

RELIEF SCHEMES.

Board Must Live Within Income. MR FORBES’S STATEMENT. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON. August 13. The finances of the Unemployment Board were again the subject of urgent questions in the House yesterday. Mr J. S. Fletcher (Independent, Grey Lynn) asked the Minister of Finance if he had issued instructions to the board that the expenditure was to be limited to £50,000 a week. Mr Fletcher added that despite that rate of expenditure there were still thousands of men who could not get work under relief schemes because the money allotted was inadequate. “No instruction has been issued to the board, but the board is required to live within its income,” replied the Rt Hon G. W. Forbes. 44 Furthermore, the board cannot spend money for which it has no Parliamentary sanction.” An assurance, that the Government would not allow the present earnings of relief workers to be affected by a reduction in the number of working days through inadequate local body allocations was sought in an urgent question by Mr W. Nash (Labour, Hutt). Mr Forbes replied that the allocations were made by the board to the local authorities who were expected to do the best they could with the funds. At present the board was making its grants up to the full amount of its income, and was not in a position to give any increases. The Government was going into the question of ablfcrbing additional men on public works to ascertain what provision could be made to carry the unemployed over the next two I months. | Mr P. Fraser (Labour, Wellington j Central) : The Prime Minister will npt i sanction the cutting down of the days of work ? Mr Forbes said the matter was entirely in the hands of the board, and in a difficult time like the present the local bodies were expected to assist the board to the best of their ability. Mr Nash remarked that his question was addressed directly to the Finance Minister and not to the Unemployment Board.