FUNDS CUT DOWN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 194, 17 August 1931, Page 9

FUNDS CUT DOWN.

Consternation among Local Bodies. UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF. Consternation has been caused among local bodies by the action of the Unemployment Board In cutting down suddenly the amount of money allowed for unemployment relief works this week. It is stated that men who started to-day will have to be told that there will be no work for them tomorrow. The City Council’s allocation for this week has been cut down from £IBBO to £1520, a difference of £360. The Citizens’ Unemployment Committee, which discussed the matter today, sent a wire to the board stating that the city was very perturbed at the board’s action in reducing, the vote without notice, thereby causing in(superable difficulties, as the men had commenced work. It was asked whether the vote could be reinstated this week, and the board was urged to give a week’s notice of any future alterations. The Board's Difficulty. The new Unemployment Board, said Mr W. E. Leadley, a member of the

old Board, would have to repay to the Consolidated Fund the money advanced by the Government since June 20. The Board would have an income of two and a half million pounds sterling, but with an expenditure of £50,000 weekly it would have no funds to devote "* to the larger developmental schemes.

Councillor Beanland, chairman of the : Works Committee of the City Council, ! stated that the Drainage Board would have to put off to-morrow all single men 1 in its employ. The City Council was in the same position, and everv single man was being put off and married men were being employed. The idea had been to transfer single men to other centres, but those centres were in just as bad a position. What was going to happen to the single men he did not know. Matters were much worse now than they had been a month ago. To have this city and other towns full of single men with nothing to do would be a calamity. “ No Work To-morrow.” The City Council’s vote for this week had been cut down by £3BO, continued Cr Beanland. The council had been spending £IBBO weekly, but this week it would have to be £1520. The anr.o3'ing part of it was that the council had already made its arrangements for this week. Men who had been taken on to-day would have to be told that j there would bo no work for them tomorrow. The Drainage Board had had its ! allocation cut down from £229 ISs to £152. Local bodies that were seeking to find work for the men must have a week’s notice of any change in the allocation of funds. The Drainage Board would have to put off eighty-six men who had been taken on that cay for two days’ work. Stoppage of work in the Rawhiti Domain would save the City Council £9O, and to save the other £270 it was proposed to cut the fourday men down to three days, and the j three-day men to two days. “ Board Has Slipped.” “ I am satisfied that the new board has slipped, back to the position in which the old board found itself,” declared Mr W. W. Scarff (Heathcote County Council). “I had instructions from the Education Board to-day to put off men, both married and single.” The chairman (Mr E. 11. Andrews) stated that the Tramway Board had a job on which single men could be employed, but the board’s allocation this week had been cut down to £IOO. While amounts were being exit down like that, many men would not get their quota of work. Mr G. Maginness: We have an Unemployment Board, and more’s the pity. That is not intended as a reflection against the members, but I have always been of opinion that the board should consist of the Ministers of Labour, Lands, Railways and Public Works. They have a responsibility to Parliament and to the people, and have control of works. Instead of that, an Unemployment Board is set up to act as a buffer between Parliament and the people. Mr A. Manhire said that, though the reduction in the allocation would not affect the Waimakariri River Trust’s camps, those men who had gone to work to-day would have to return to their homes to-morrow.

The motion to send a wire to the board was carried unanimously.

“APPARENT BIAS.”

Complaint Made by Freezing Workers. RELIEF EMPLOYMENT. The attention of the Minister of Labour (the lion S. G. Smith), in his capacity as chairman of the Unemployment Board, has been drawn by the National Executive of the New Zealand Freezing Workers’ Federation to a difficulty experienced by freezing works employees in obtaining relief work under the board’s schemes. Mr 11. C. Revell, secretary of the federation, has written to the Minister as follows: “ I have been desired by the National Executive of the Freezing Workers’ Federation to respectfully draw your board’s attention to the unfair attitude of some of the local unemployment committees towards seasonal workers, particularly freezing works employees. “ It has been frequently reported that men who have been employed in the freezing works during the freezing season have been turned down when applying for work, the impression being given that, as they had been working in the freezing works and allegedly earning big money, they were not entitled to the benefits of the scheme generally. “ I am desired to point out to your board that it is a mistake to say that men employed in the freezing works earn big money, as the majority of them do not earn, on an average for the season, more than £3 7s 6d per week. I have had supplied to me by picked men in the various works a statement showing the actual time worked in each week of the season and the wages received, and I can assure you that they are alarmingly low*. “ It is particularly unfortunate that these men are being penalised by some of the unemployment boards in this manner, because, after all, the workers in the freezing industry render a great national service to the country, killing

and preparing for export over nine million and a half carcases of mutton and lamb, in addition to beef and other meat, and they render this service to the country expeditiously and efficiently and it certainly is disheartening tq these men to find themselves shut out from the various relief works simply because they are freezing works employees. I respectfully appeal to your board to do something towards removing this apparent bias.”

UNEMPLOYED WOMEN. Special Committee will Make Inquiry. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, August 17. Provision is made in the Unemployment Amendment Act for the appointment by the Unemployment Board of a special committee to consider the whole question of unemployed women. The Minister of Labour (the Hon S. G. Smith) who is chairman of the Board, announced to-day that the following had been appointed to the committee: Mr 11. D. Thomson, Undersecretary for Immigration (chairman), Mr Frank Campbell, of Wellington, formerly president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association, Mrs Marshall Macdonald (Dunedin), and Miss B. E. Carnachan, president of the National Council of Women (Auckland).

TAKING MARRIED MEN. City Council’s Unemployment Loan Work. A complaint that the City Council was discharging unemployed men who were eligible for two days’ work in each week, and was taking only three-day men for the council’s unemployment loan work, was made by Mr A. Manhire at a meeting of the Citizens’ Unemployment Committee today. Mr Manhire stated that the practice of taking the married men for the work, for whicli 15s 4d a day would be paid, was not fair to other local bodies. Mr R. T. Bailey, Officer in Charge, Labour Department, Christchurch, stated that married men were asking to be transferred to the Council’s list, on*account of the extra pay. Mr W. W. Scarff: If the Heathcote County Council must lose the married men and have only single men, that is the end of the work.

In reply, Councillor J. W. Beanland, chairman of the Works Committee of the City Council, stated that the Council was’trying to get in its employ as many married men as possible. T hey would be placed on the work that gave them 15s 4d a day, and the rest of the men would be given other work. Generally speaking, married men had given the better service on relief work. There were present at the meeting:— Messrs E. 11. Andrews (chairman), J. W. Beanland, F. W. J. Belton, R. J. Ecroyd, W. E. Leadley, G. Maginness, G. Lawn, J. W. Crampton, George Harper, T. L. Drummond, W. W. Scarff, R. T. Bailey, A. Manhire, Mrs A. I. Fraer and Mr J. F. Fames (hon secretary). Mr Scarff stated that there were still three blocks of potatoes totalling seventeen acres, to be dug, but sacks were needed.