RELIEF DEMANDS

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 118, 13 May 1932, Page 5

RELIEF DEMANDS

WOULD COST £5,000,000!

SAYS MR. COATES

(Per Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Last Night.

“If the Wellington relief workers’ demands concerning the increased rates of pay were applied throughout the whole of the country, the cost to the Unemployment Board would be £103,676 per week, or £5,391,152 per year for the administration of the No. 5 scheme alone, without the other activities of the board being taken into consideration.” This statement was made by the Minister of Employment (Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) in reply to a question during an interview to-day. Mr. Coates said that under the .revised scale of wages the revenue of the board would permit of the expenditure of only £60,000 under the No. 5 Scheme. In the four centres alone, before the introduction of the new rates, the board had been spending at the rate of £50,000 per week.

Discussing the position generally, the Minister said that those in work on relief jobs at present would receive the new scale of wages, and in addition hospital board assistance would be given in necessitous cases. As soon as the new scheme became fully operative, relief workers would receive the revised rates of pay, and ration cards in addition where these were required. The. Minister repeated that he refused to make a statement to the whole of the relief workers until everyone, was bask on the job.