CITY RELIEF SCHEMES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21419, 11 March 1935, Page 12

CITY RELIEF SCHEMES

SUBSIDY PLAN FOR AUCKLAND CHRISTCHURCH SYSTEM COMPARED The Auckland City Council's new scheme for the payment of relief labour, which comes into force to-day. seems to be based very largely (in the scheme in operation during the last few years by the Christchurch City Council, whereby relief wages paid by the Unemployment Board have been subsidised to bring the average weekly pay up lo a considerably higher level. Making allowances for the variations in classification and the number of days to be worked, it appears that city relief workers in both Christchurch and Auckland will in future be receiving approximately the same daily rate of pay. The Auckland council decided last week to abolish the No. 5 scheme, under which its relief workers have been engaged, and adopted a subsidised wages plan for the 570 men affected. The men will not be employed for the full working week, but will work on the same number of days as under the Government relief schemes. But the new rate of pay will be 14s 7d a day. compared with 9s for married men under !he old scheme. Comparative Details Under the new Auckland scheme a married man without children will he paid £ 1 His (id for two and a half days' work, compared wilh £1 9s paid to a relief worker under a similar classification in Christchurch. But the Christchurch man works oniy two days a week, so (hat he receives approximately the same daily rate of nay as the Auckland worker. The Christchurch rate for a day's work is 14s 6d. For the married man without children the weekly rate of pay under the old Auckland scheme was £1 2s 6d and for other classifications varied accordingly, so that the Christchurch council's relief workers have been receiving considerably better weekly pay than the Auckland men for some time. The remuneration for a married relief worker with one child under the Auckland scheme will be £2 3s 9d for three days. The same man working for the Christchurch council works two days a week and receives £1 9s. If the Christchurch man worked the additional day involved under the Auckland scheme he would receive approximately £2 3s 6d. The Auckland man with two children will receive £2 lis for three and a half days, and the Christchurch man with two children receives £1 16s 3d for two and a half days. Auckland has the same rate for married men with three or more children (£2 18s 4d for four daysj, whereas the Christchurch scheme provides for payment at the rate of £2 3s 6d for men with three, four, and five children working three days, and at £2 10s 9d for men with six and seven children 'or more, working three and a half days. Cost to City The Auckland relief workers will be working longer hours than the Christchurch men for more pay. The Christchurch rates which have been quoted are those for a new scheme which came into force last mon'ih and which provides for higher wages and in some cases reduced hours for the men with families. The Christchurch City Council employs between 500 and 600 relief workers, and the wages paid to them amounts yearly to a big item. For the council's last financial year unemployment relief workers averaged about 750, employed under the City Engineer's department. During that year, ended March 31, 1934, £71.395 was paid in wages to relief workers by the Christchurch City Council, including both the City Engineer's department and the Reserves Department. The total payments for the work amounted to £100,230, the balance of £28.340 being for supervision and materials.

MEN TO BE PLACED ON SUSTENANCE INSTRUCTION TO 1)1 NEDIN OFFICER [THE TRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN, March 10. Advice has been received by the certifying officer for the Unemployment Board that about *l6 men in Duncdin, who have been classified as "B 2, lit for light work," will be placed on sustenance: from Monday. It is understood that about 46 men arc alfectcd, and that the result ol the new instruction will be to reduce their weekly income by three shillings. Commenting on the position the Mayor tthe Rev. E. T. Cox) said that men were already on starvation pay, and they would now have even less to eat. The principle of the board appeared to be that if men were paid less, there would be less, likelihood of their being attracted to register. He added that the case of these men would be taken into consideration when an appeal now being prepared was made to the Government to give additional grants to men in classes F., G., H. and 1., whose income had been reduced under the scheme which had come into operation during last month by sums ranging from 2s 6d to 5s Gd a week. REQUEST FOR EASING OF RELIEF REGULATION A deputation representing the wives of relief workers waited on the Metropolitan Relief Association representatives on Saturday morning, asking for the relaxation of the rule of the association prohibiting the issue of relief to families where after the payment of rent the income exceeds 5s a head a week. A request was made for a higher limit. It was stated by the deputation after the meeting that the request had been refused, but that the women would wait on the Citizens' Unemployment Committee on Monday to ask for support in its efforts to have the rule relaxed. WOMEN'S AUXILIARY FORMED AT NEW BRIGHTON About 40 women attended a meeting of the New Brighton Unemployed Workers' Movement held in the Band Hall on Saturday, and it was decided to form a women's auxiliary. Miss C. Penney, of the Christchurch Women Unemployed Workers' Association, presided. It was decided that an auxiliary to the New Brighton Movement be formed, and the following officers were elected:—President, Mrs E. M. Ewing; secretary and treasurer, Mrs J, Duncan; executive, Mesdames T. Palmer, D. Henderson, L. Zimmerman, E. Schute, J. Kerr, J. Harpur, and H. Inkster. After the discussion of a case in which a tenant with a sick wife and one child was evicted from a house in South Brighton, his furniture being moved on to a vacant section in his absence by the landlord, it was decided lo form an eviction committee lo resist any effort again to remove <he tenant, who has retaken posses- 1