SUBSIDY MAY BE PAID.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 386, 31 March 1932, Page 9

SUBSIDY MAY BE PAID.

No Restriction to be Placed on Trust. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, March 30. The dispute affecting relief workers on the Waimakariri River Trust’s scheme was discussed with the Minister of Unemployment, the Right Hon J. G. Coates, to-day, when a deputation comprising Messrs Sullivan (Mayor of Christchurch), Armstrong and M’Combs and all the Christchurch delegates to the annual Labour Party conference at Wellington advanced the viewpoint of the men who had refused to accept the conditions laid down.

The deputation asked the Minister if he would sanction higher wages than those authorised to be paid on relief work, namely from 37s to £2 10s, and it was suggested that at least the rates hitherto paid for relief work should be paid for the full time the men were occupied. A further point raised by the deputation was that the River Trust had intimated to the Unemployment Board its willingness to subsidise the relief wages paid by the board. If this were so the deputation asked whether the Minister would give an assurance that the board would not be allowed to reduce its contribution toward the men’s pay.

The Minister promised to investigate the points raised. Later in the day he informed Mr Sullivan that the increase in wages asked for could not be agreed to. Upon the second question raised the Minister said that no suggestion of payment of a subsidy had been received by the Unemployment Board from the River Trust. He assured Mr Sullivan, however, that no restriction would be imposed on the board should the River Trust agree to increase the scale payable by the board under relief rates.