AUCKLAND SCHEME

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21420, 12 March 1935, Page 16

AUCKLAND SCHEME

SUBSIDISED WORKS STARTED STANDARD RATES OF PAY I THE FKESS Special Service. ] AUCKLAND, March 11. The City Council's scheme of subsidised works, on which men arc to be paid standard rates of wages, was inaugurated to-day on all undertakings which had formerly been No. 5 relief works. The object of the scheme, lor which the council recently received authority from the ratepayers to borrow £68,000, is to complete all relief works as standard wage jobs. While the men engaged will work only two to four days a week, each according to hi:-, classification, they will be required greatly to. increase the pace set on the majority of relief works in the past. The introduction of this scheme has greatly reduced the number of registered unemployed under the control of the City Council. Until the end of January, the council was employing more than 1500 of these men; but since the decision was made to convert relief works to standard rate jobs, members of the city engineer's staff have been selecting the men they require, and transferring others to sustenance. Approximately 570 men were required for subsidised works, and for the last week or two these men have been kept on at relief rates. Pending the change-over, the engineers report that there has been a marked change in the attitude of the men toward their work, and on some jobs it was noted that the comparatively small number of men retained did more work in a day than did Die full complement when the No. 5 scheme W" in operation. Under the new scheme, the men will have their relief wages made up by the council to the standard rate of 14s 7d. DEMONSTRATION IN CITY . NEW BRIGHTON MEN ALLOWED TO ATTEND Permission for relief workers in New Brighton to attend the demonstration to be held in Christchurch to-morrow was granted by the New Brighton Borough Council at its meeting last evening. This permission was granted on condition that the time lost be made up by the men later. The Mayor (Mr E. A. M. Leaver) said that the council could not grant the men the time off unless it was made up. Councillors signed a petition drawn up by relief workers, asking the Government for better conditions for men on relief work. APPEAL FOR REJECT SHEEP CANTERBURY FARMERS TO BE ASKED TO ASSIST The Metropolitan Relief Depot has asked 400 Canterbury farmers to give to the depot their reject ewes, wethers, or lambs which are cut out of the consignments to freezing works. The depot has stated in its appear that assistance of the sort from farmers would not only assist the depot directly in the issue of rations for the needy, but would indirectly help by making cash resources go further. The Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.) has organised a special committee to attend to donations received. MEETING AT NEW BRIGHTON The weekly meeting of the New Brighton Unemployed Workers' movement was held in the Band Hall last evening, with the president, Mr C. F. Pryke, in the chair. The chairman said that the Mayor 'Mr E. A. 'VI. Leaver) had told him UiJ. he would prefer that any complaints from relief workers should be presented by the executive of the movement rather than that stop-work meetings should be held, as they would then have been verified by the executive and the district council, comprising a delegate from each job. Mr J. Boyd reported that a committee was arranging a free picnic for the wives and children of relief workers and sustenance men in the Pleasant Point domain on March 30. The action of the executive in sending telegrams to the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) and to Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., was endorsed.