UNEMPLOYED CAMP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 42, 19 February 1932, Page 5

UNEMPLOYED CAMP

WAITOTARA VALLEY ROAD ROADWORK FOR 1(F MEN. Inland from Waitotara a road follows the windings of the Waitotara River through high, rough country, mostly cleared now but with an occasional gully or cliff clad in luxuriant bush. On this road a camp has been built by the Public Works Department for unemployed mtn, of whom there are now 115 situated in the vicinity. For years now the settlers served by the road have endured tho hardships of transport, sometimes for months being blocked during winter. This summer the Public Works Department have taken over the road, with the double object of giving some of the unemployed work, and making a road for .the settlers.

Although the land at the top of this Waitotara Valley is rich-and fertile, the lower reaches provide poor country for the fanner. Thus, the County Council has been able o do little on account of the smallness of the rates available, and settlers have had to do the best they could for the forty years or so that the country, has been opened up. Already great changes have been made on the road with the work carried out by the unemployed. From the Piranui bridge, 19$ miles from the main road at Waitotara, construction work has been carried out, continuing for nearly four miles to the main camp of unemployed men. Beyond this point, construction work is still under way, gangs of men working in groups of eight to ten, covering the next two miles to the Kaimanuka Junction. From here to the Makakaho Bridge, a distance of three and a-quarter miles, widening work has been done, cutting off corners and filling up washouts. On the stretch of road from the Piranui Bridge to the Kaimanuka Junction, 5} miles, small distances have been metalled, on a more or less uniform road width of twelve feet. Metal for this is obtained from several sources, all, however, on the road and worked by the unemployed men. The most interesting of these, is the shellrock deposit at a height of over 400 feet above the road. A long wooden chute has been constructed from the seam of shellrock, and the metal is quarried and sent down this to the men below, who break it up, ready for spreading on the road. Three or four metal pits have bon opened up near the road, and a crushing plant has aho been instituted on the riverbank, and is fed with boulders from the riverbed. Practically all the men work on contract, each being given a certain length of road to work on. The majority of them are making wages, which are standardised at 12s 6d p. day. On this they have to supply all their own necessities, the Government supplying them with lodging only. One large camp houses about 50 men, while smaller camps of 10, 20, and. 25 are .stationed at different intervals along the road. About a month ago, the work was not so concentrated as it is at present, and the men lived in twos. Tents were then seen :.t regular distances of about a quarter of a mile, placed on picturesque sites on the riverbank. Now there is the big cam; where the tents give an impression of a small army encamped. Here a blacksmith shop has been , handed over to two or three of the • unemployed men as their job. It may i be explained that this blacksmith shop is one of the busiest centres of the road. All carting of metal and so forth is done by* dray and horse, a policy rigorously carried out by the Public Works Department, who state that it is one means of supporting New Zealand industries. There is not one motor truck or engine on the whole road job. Since last December, this work has been carried out, unemployed coming there from districts all over the North Island. Men from Wellington and Wanganui mix with men from New Plymouth, Napier and Aawera. They are a very good class of men, the pick j of the unemployed of these centres. I They state they are quite content in 1 their surroundings, and find the work healthy, and have no complaints to make at all. During the heat of the past few days, many have discarded shirts 'and singlets, and working in trousers only have gained a healthy coat of tan. Mail days, which at present arc Mondays and Thursdays, are looked forward to by the majority. | Many have a word of praise for the j local settlers who, they state, treat ' them very generously and kindly. Lei- i sure hours are spent in no organised j manner as yet, the evenings mostly I passing in card playing. No doubt ’ with the winter months approaching, practice Rugby games will be commenced, fyut at present the windless heat in the valley is little conduciv» to any exertion after tho day’s work. When the first men were sent to the camp, there had been a misunderstanding, owing to the men expecting different conditions to those whmh existed. They had returned to their town, and the matter had been clearer up. The next men settled down quickl to the work, and in the first week 9 per cent, of them had made wages o: the work carried out by them und< contract. This had continued up ti the present. With Public Works for< men in charge, their work is laid ou’ for them, and they are pah. accordin;, to results. Payment varies in mone- i tary value with the different work done. The last men arrived from Napier. and a further 15 men arrive this week, which will bring the total to j over 120. Settlers are pleased to sec the work , being carried out on their road at last. Where once they had to allow for two or three hours to traverse the road from Waitotara, over some 30 miles, now it can be done in less than an hour, and by the winter this will probably be all metalled. The value of the road then can only be realised by the settlers who depend on it for getting their wool and stores in and out.