LEVY QUESTION

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1931, Page 5

LEVY QUESTION

INCREASE MOOTED. (By Telegraph—Ter Tress Association) NELSON, June 23. A public meeting at Nelson passed a resoiwtibn filial the Unemployment Levy should be increased in incomes of three hundred pounds a year and upwards on a graduated scale, giving the unemployed one day’s work per week extra all round. It was also resolved that the work should lie of a productive or land set.lenient nature.

A strong committee was set up to deni with nil the cases of local distress.

LEVY QU-STICN. CHRISTCHURCH, June 23. ‘‘Our immediate worry has been to keep the Number 5 Scheme going tiff Parliament meets and decides wliat further steps are to be taken. The present levy is inadequate. We have several important schemes in mind, but they cannot he proceeded with till we are sure of our income” ( said Air F. L. Hutchinson, a Christchurch memher of the Unemployment Board.) Air W. E. Leadlev, the other Christchurch member of the Board, declined to make any comment on the situation as outlined by Air Hutchinson. The next move was with the Government, he said. The Board could not branch out till Parliament lmtl mdioted how much would be available. alv Hutchinson said the hoard hoped to get a definite pronouncement from the Government during the coming session as to the income the Board could expect. Parliament would almost assuredly take the matter in hand immediately it met. The worst feature of the present system was that the board could not be sure of continuity of payment, and so nothing could be done involving any considerable amount ol’ finance. “Parliament,” be said, “will havo to ratify the continuation of the pre-,-eut No. 5 .Scheme. As far as the board is concerned the outlook is hopeful. The majority of the men are being put on useful work. There is always a fringe of men from whom it is hopeless to expect solid work. In Christchurch there are about 4000 men working under the scheme, but the public see only those who are working in places, such as the parks and! gardens. These are the minority who, probably, have never worked well. Alost of the men get their three or four days, and they set out to work and do it well. The Board canno. discriminate, though it has given overseers and local bodies full authority to put off the men who do not play the game.” Australians were of the*opinion that New Zealand’s way of collecting the money was not as good ns their own method of taxing wagofa - a ..parliament would lmvo to go into the matter of providing more money Mr Hutchinson stressed tho importance of the publicity campaign for New Zealand goods. SOLDIERS ON PENSION. DISSATISFIED WITH RELIEF SCHEME. WELLINGTON, June 23. A criticism of the Unemployment Board’s attitude in reference to returned soldiers was made at the Returned Soldiers’ Conference. Mr Lloyd (Christchurch) said that it had been laid down that the single men who are in receipt of the War Pension of one pound, per week were not entitled to receive employment under the relief scheme. The position was that those men on pension could not get two days work each week, and yet they had to pay 7s 6d a quarter. The only persons exempt from the levy were the pensioners who were permanently disabled and who were in receipt of the full pension. A pensioner could make “application for relief from the payment, but it is doubtful if it would be granted. If it were granted, the rpplicant would! not then he entitled to any work at all.