THE TRAMP TO WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1931, Page 9

THE TRAMP TO WORK

DISTANT RELIEF JOBS A CONCESSION ASKED Some weeks ago the City Council agreed that a special tramway concession should be granted relief workers, provided that the cost to the Tramway Department could be made good out of the relief work loan. This suggestion the Local Government Loans Board declined to sanction, and nothing theiofore came of the proposal. Last night Mr J. I. Goldsmith, chairman^ of the Wellington Unemployment Belief Committee, mado a modified suggestion, to the Finance Committee. Mr. Goldsmith asked that consideration should bo given men who had to move from one end of the city to the other to got to and from their work, for as tho threepenny concession ticket did not talec passengers past the city tho men had to pay-a second fare, and for men receiving only about <Ms per week one shilling per day for tram fares was a very heavy liability. . Die men particularly affected at present were those working in the Wilton Block area. Many of these workers had to travel from the far side of the city, and some from Lyall and Island Bays, and as they could not afford to pay car fares they had to walk, some being two hours on the road each way, which meant that in fact they had to work 12 hours per day. Even those who came part way by tram had to walk from Lambton to the Wilton Block. The difficulty, ho suggested, was not insurmountable, and could be overcome quite simply by means of a special transfer ticket. The men were doing very good work, and in the Wilton Block were opening up something like 1000 building sections on council land; at £100 per section the council was having created an asset worth at least £100,000, so that under tho circumstances the council could afford to grant those men some consideraion. At the time when the men were going to and from their work tho trams were not full, and should they occupy them thcro would not in fact be any additional cost for the council to meet. Councillor Appleton asked whether he had rightly understood Mr. Goldsmith that some of the"men were two hours on the road. "Some of them come from Island Bay," replied Mr. Goldsmith, "Let any councillor try that walk; it takes two hours all right." The Mayor (Mr. T. C. A. Hislop) said that the request was somewhat different from that previously made; it would be carefully considered. From a cold business point of view, he remarked, it was desirable that the men should reach their work in a fit stato to io it.