NEW CONDITIONS IMPOSED.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20497, 16 March 1932, Page 16

NEW CONDITIONS IMPOSED.

RELIEF WORK AT KAITUNA.

MEN DISREGARD TRADES UNION OFFICIALS.

Forty hours' work for 87s 6d a week are tho conditions under which 20 unemployed married men of Christchurcli were offered work by the Unemployment Board in cleaning out the Kaituna river for the Wairewa County Council. Eighteen of the men accepted the conditions, and left the City at 8 a.m. yesterday Jby train for Little River.

The payment of 37s 6d a week is the same amount as these men have previously been given for working three days "a week under the No. o Scheme. From this there will be deducted the cost of their food, while they are required to make tlieh* own arrangements for cooking, and to provide their own blankets. They will, however, have the advantage of being in work continuously and not for onlythree veeks in every four.

The Board's Assurance. . The conditions of work are the same as those which were in the Tauranga country early in February. It was then stated by the Unemployment Board that the new scheme for a 40-hour week would not apply to the whole of the Dominion, but was to be made applicable to certain districts to meet special local conditions. it ivas then understood that the regulations were designed to deal with problems arising through men living in Maori pas and seeking relief work only for erratic periods. There was some discussion of thesv conditions at a meeting of the Chrisfcchurch Unemployment Committee on Monday, March 7th. A statement was made in committee by Mr R. T. Bailey, officer-in-eharge of the Labour Department, Christchurcli, and after some discussion tho members passed a resolution that while they did not object to a limited scheme of a 40-hour week as applied to farm work- and country camps, they trusted that it would not be applied to the general unemployment works undertaken by local bodies.

Arrangements at Kaituna. ,In view of this discussion, it is claimed that the new conditions cannot be said to have* been sprung on the men as a surprise. On Monday, Mr Bailey waited on the Wairewa Countv Council to make arrangements for the unemployed camp at Kaituna. Arrangements had then been made by the Council to hire railway huts for the men to live in, and the engineer (Mr Leeder) reported that he had arranged for the men's rations. If the Council wished they could have other work done in the district, said Mr Bailey. He added that most of the works in and around Christchurch were now completed, and that the Unemployment Board wanted to work in with the County Councils and get the men into camps.

Unions' Advice Declined. Trade Union officials in Christchurch are up in aims against the new conditions of work, which, they claim, represent merely an extension of the scheme adopted in Tauranga and certain other districts of the North Island. The impending departure of the men was known to them only on Monday afternoon. Mr C. E. Baldwin and Mr R. M. Macfarlane were deputed to go down to the train yesterday morning and try to dissuade the men from leaving,- and telegrams were sent to' the Minister for Unemployment (the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates), accusing him of having broken his promise, and to the Leader of the Labour Party (Mr H. E. Holland) asking him to call the attention of Parliament to the new proposal. At the station the men did not choose to take the advice that was offered them. They left quietly, although additional policemen were present in case of a disturbance. According to Mr Macfarlane, the men said that they were in such an extreme of poverty that they were forced to accept the conditions of work offered to them. A general meeting of the unemployed is to be held on. Saturday morning to discuss , the whole question.

TWO HUNDRED MEN PLACED. NO. 4A SCHEME IN OPERATION. •/ ~ . "Two hundred single men have been placed on farms in Canterbury under the Unemployment Board's No. 4a Scheme, and on one farm in Kaikoura arrangements have been made to engage 24 men, Mr E. T. Bailey, officer in charge of the Labour Department, told members of the Wairewa County Council at a meeting on Monday. Mr Bailey's statement was in reply to Cr. Richards, who asked if men engaged under the No. 4a Scheme could move from farm to farm. Cr. Richards thought that if the Government paid the farmer 7s 6d a week for board and paid the men 10s a week a lot of men would be employed. Mr Bailey said he was willing to recommend payment at the rate of 10s and 7s 6d allowance for rations. The Department was trying to get as many men out of town for the winter as possible. He had arranged for men in and near Christchurch to make up a gang, obtain a threshing mill whare, and move from farm to farm.

Cr. Richards suggested that camps of single men might be established at Kaituna, Little River, Okuti Valley, and elsewhere in the country to help farmers to grub gorse and noxious weeds. In answer to Cr. Bichards, Mr Bailey said he thought the utensils for these camps might be available from the Public Works Department. If the local committee would go into the matter he was willing to help in every way. The Department would pay the men's rations up to 7s 6d a week. In answer to Cr. Feather, Mr Bailey said the men could be employed on any work additional to the ordinary work of the farm. The specified classes of work had been waived. In regard to the establishing of camps the farmer would have to pay insurance, would receive the Government 7s 6d for rations and pay for the keep of the men. If the County Council wanted a camp established in Little Biver of additional men, the Council should apply to the Department.

WOMEN'S RELIEF COMMITTEE. A meeting of the New Brighton Women's Relief Committee was held in the Borough Council Chambers yesterday afternoon, Miss I. A. M. Leaver presiding. r Miss Leaver reported that she had received the gift of a large parcel of garments from Mrs Walter East. Promises of garments, poultry, cakes, and other produce for the stall to be carried on by the committee at the New Brighton Easter Gala were accepted with thanks. It was hoped that others would volunteer to act as collectors. Miss Leaver mentioned that although. the Gbristohuroh, Pepo4 waa

helped New Brighton in the early stages of its establishment, it now had little enough to supply its own needs, and New Brighton must look after itself.

MEETING AT NEW BRIGHTON. A public meeting called by the New Brighton Unemployment Belief Depot Committee was held in the Pier Hall, New Brighton, last evening for the purpose of getting general endorsement of the action of the committee in adopting the Lower Hutt relief scheme in a modified form.

The Deputy-Mayor (Cr. A. E, Lawry), chairman of the Unemploy' ment Belief Depot Committee, presided over an attendance of over 60.

A report was submitted by the secretary explaining the relief methods adopted in Lower Hutt. These consisted in supplying meat, potatoes, and fuel at nominal charges; medical services and dental extractions, garden seeds, groceries, and vegetables free, as available; boot repairs at cost of mate rials, second-hand clothing free, and working boots and trousers at 5s and 10s a pair. Workers were also assisted free in coming *to an agreement with their landlords to avoid eviction, and to obtain an adjustment in rent when necessary. A benevolent committee, after enquiring into the - circumstances of the applicant, decided if he was to have goods free or was able to pay the small fixed charges. The Mayor of New Brighton (Mr E. A. M. Leaver) reported that at the request of the committee he had, when in Wellington last week, interviewed Mr Walter Nash, M.P. for Lower Hutt, who had informed him that the scheme had worked well, but that at the end of eighteen months it had shown a deficit of £4OO, which the Council had shouldered. Mr Leaver pointed out that the New Brighton Borough Council' was not financially able to face a debit of that kind. He thought that by modifying the scheme, more particularly by not dealing in new boots and new trousers, which tho Lower Hutt committee sold at below cost, the scheme could be made to pay its way. There would be a small sum available from the Mayor's Belief Fund to launch it.

Mr Leaver explained that the meat was given by the Government and others, and that the small charge (14d a-lb) at which it was sold, to those able to pay helped to finance other sections of the scheme. Mr Leaver moved that the meeting approve of the action of a previous meeting in adopting the Lower Hutt scheme, and request the Relief Commit* tee to carry out the scheme as far as practicable. The motion was carried. The Eev. T. M. Curnow enquired as tc the basis on which the Benevolent Committee in New Brighton would decide whether an applicant should receive all benefits free or should be made to pay such moderate charges as were fixed. It was pointed out that if an applicant was getting employment under the No. 5 Scheme he was expected to pay during the weeks he was working for anything ho received, for which a charge was fixed. The chairman said that arrangements were well forward for boot repairing to be carried out by men under the No. 5 Scheme, and that arrangements were also being made for unemployed hairdressers to cut hair at nominal rates. The Mayor reported that two unemployed men were at present engaged in gathering sea weed from the ,beach, cutting it up ith a machine lent them bv Mr F. O. Andrews, and bagging it 'for sale as fertiliser.

SEAWEED AS FERTILISER. COLLECTION BY UNEMPLOYED MEN. • "Kelp contains many of the inorganic substances required by plants lor their food, and is applied to the greatest advantage with organic manure," said Mr, James 'Young, Curator of the Botanic Gardens, to a Peesji reporter yesterday, when told that two unemployed men at New Brighton \yere collecting and cutting' seaweed and selling it lor fertiliser. It was profitable plant iood, he saicl, for almost any purpose, and especially for top-dressing gra.ss lands. For sandy country, such as the New Brighton area, combined with bonedust, nothing better could be obtained, and its utilisation should'be a distinct gain to the wealth of the community. Mr Frank Andrews, who has made a study of the value of seaweeds as fertilisers,- said that facilities for distributing and applying seaweed to the land could only be obtained by cutting it up. In the Channel Islands, Ayrshire, Norway, Sweden, . and other countries it ' was extensively used, and had proved' of tremendous value in promoting the growth of asparagus and celery. He said that potatoes, mangolds, parsnips, and carrots could be grown in rotation if the land were heavily manured with seaweed before planting the first crop. In Mr Andrews' opinion the experiences 'of the New Brighton relief workers who were cutting, bagging, and selling it should be watched with interest, as it appeared more than possible that they would open up a new avenue of revenue in the Dominion.

FRICTION AT JOHNSONVILLE. (press association teoeorah.) WELINGTON, March 15. Men on relief works at Johnsonville have been stood down for a day. Following a dispute one assaulted the works fpreman, who told him to stand down. The result was that all tc\ols were downed, sixty men being affected. The men sent a deputation to the chairman of the Town Board, who told them to return to the job. They declined, and a deputation was arranged to interview the Minister in Charge of Unemployment, who, however, waß not available to them. The job will be open to the men in the morning, but the chairman of the Town Board said that the man who assaulted the foreman would not bo reengaged at Johnsonville. There had been friction over holding stop-work meetings and the practice had to stop.