WELLINGTON’S UNEMPLOYED

Evening Star, Issue 19661, 14 September 1927, Page 3

WELLINGTON’S UNEMPLOYED

USEFUL PUBLIC WORKS CITIZENS SUBSCRIBE £9,000 TEAK POINT NOT REACHED. [From Our Parliamentary Retorter.] WELLINGTON, September 1:5. Three months ago the Mayor of Wellington (Mr Geo. Troup) appealed to the. citizens for £4,000 to meet tho urgent needs of employment of men in the city. A modest programme was commenced of works which, while very necessary, were not on the city’s ordinary current programme, nor likely to appear there for several years. A start having been made, the general public became quickly educate.u to the real value of the services which the unemployed, properly organised', were rendering, and the need also became more obviously acute. Consequently the mayor’s”fund of purely voluntary subscriptions rose to £9,000, and he confidently expects it to reach £IO,OOO. The peak point of unemployed relief was reached a. month ago, when 610 men were at work, it has not dropped far to-day, and as the council has completed further plans for the utilisation of unemployed, and men are still asking for relief, a further batch will bo put on next week, which will bring tho total to about 700.

“ We are getting very good value for the money spent,” declared Mr Troup to your correspondent. “ Although the weather has been altogether against us, the progress has been simply remarkable. 'These unskilled men have done well. Some of them had never handled a pick and shovel before, but the majority are navvies. Yes, we have got value tor our .money, and wo will no doubt get the £IO,OOO from voluntary subscriptions.” Wellington’s unemployed relief resources show a total of £69,000, made up thus:—£9,ooo of voluntary subscriptions, which have been subsidised by tlie Government to an equal amount. Thou tho City Council raised an emergency relief loan of £36,000, which carried a Government subsidy on tho terms explained by the Prime Minister, and in the case of” Wellington this subsidy has amounted to £15,000. This makes tho total, hut in addition some slight heap Ims come from the Hospital Board in its subsidy of the wages of disabled soldiers, who are unable, through their disability, lo give the normal amount of work on relief works, and have their pay made up from the Hospital Board’s lunds. WHERE THE MONEY* GOES.

Primarily the control of expenditure is in the hands ol the City Council, which docs not undertake any work until proper engineering plans have been completed. There were many works calling for attention, but pigeonholed because current funds would not cover them. However, by overtime work in the engineer’s office tho held-np schemes were brought to practical shape, and men put on with the lull concurrence of the Citizens’ Belief Committee, which has been an active factor in raising the. mayor’s unemployed relief fund. This committee has just made a complete inspection of tho works in hand, and certifies that the money is being well spent on important and necessary undertakings, and Unit, generally speaking, the men are active, bard workers, and the results arc creditable to them.

As a matter of fact, Wellington is getting some much-needed improvements, which will make the city and environs more attractive. Hill roads, narrow and dangerous, are rather numerous, their dangers becoming more obvious now that the traffic is taster. Heavy retaining walls have been built and roads widened. One such scheme involves an expenditure of £7,(XK). Another important road widening and improvement is on the shores of Evan’s Bay leading to the grave of the late Prime Minister. Here £14,000 is being spent, almost wholly on labor, and the final surface will bo tar sealed out of funds independent of unemployment relief. An attractive foreshore road from Miramar along the ocean front, which lias been built in instalments during various unemployed difficulties in the past, required about a mile of formation at the Lyall Hay cud. This is now in hand, while the neighboring sand dunes (a waste area with settlement on every boundary) is a valuable place to utilise the loss-skilled and weaker class of unemployed, who find little difficulty in shovelling sand. They have dono great work levelling those dunes and providing covering heavy soil.

Wellington's recreation areas will be extended by 100 acres through this well-planned activity. A playground is being formed at Kaiwarra, a small suburb hemmed in by hills. A children’s play area is being levelled at Island Bay, a new recreation ground (Onslow Park) is taking shape at another lull suburb (Kliandallab), US,QUO is being spent on Nairnvillo Park, £5,000 on Western Park, while a narrow road connecting Island Bay with the hill suburb of Brooklyn is being widened. Hardly any part of the city lias failed to secure some benefit from tbo.se works.