CAMPS FOR MARRIED MEN

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 16 June 1933, Page 6

CAMPS FOR MARRIED MEN

POSSIBLE VOLUNTARY ACTION

EXPLANATION BY MINISTER

(By Telegraph--Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 15

“We do not want to be hard on married men and their families —we realise that they are having a difficult time—and we say that if the public works and forestry camps are manned voluntarily nobody will be forced to go into camps; those camps ought to be manned and they very likely will be manned,” said the Minister of Employment (the Hon. A. Hamilton) in reply to a deputation from the relief workers’ union which waited on him t-o protest against compulsion, being used for married men to go into camps. The deputation said there was no objection to married men voluntarily going into camps. Mrs. Otliam said tlie wives of many relief workers strongly objected to their husbands being sent compulsorily into camps. The families of these men were practically on the breadline. She asked what the Government would do for families left behind in a miserable position.

Other speakers gave instances of the distressed condition of the families of many relief workers, which condition, it was asserted, would be made much worse by the breadwinner of a family having to leave liis home and go into camp.

The Minister said he thought too much was being made of the compulsory element. He realised the worry and distressing conditions that existed in' the homes of many unemployed. There were men wanted, in some camps to-day and it was difficult to obtain a full response. He could not see why there should be such strong objection to going to those camps if the payment was fair and the conditions were good. The. Forestry Department wished to have trees planted now. It seemed strange there was difficulty in getting men to go into those camps. If the public works and forestry camps were manned there would be no compulsion needed. He thought those camps would be filled, and that would greatly relieve the present difficulty The Government would try to have the camps manned in a voluntary way. After that was done the position would be reviewed.