TO BE EXTENDED

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1932, Page 5

TO BE EXTENDED

RELIEF SCHEME

WORK OUTSIDE CITIES

( By Telegraph—Per Press A**oc\at'wn l

WELLINGTON, June 21

An announcement was made to-uight by Mr Coates, Minister of Employment' that areas outside the‘four main cities are being placed on,, substantially, they’f&jne basis, for unemployment relief allocation as -the cities have had for the last few weeks.

lii making this announcement, Mr Coates expressed gratification at . being .able to remove what was undoubtedly an anomaly;'jirikT. to give a. further measure of relief where it is most urgently required. • t “In my'opinion,” said Mr Coates, “and it is an opinion forced upon me by specific, reports from various centres, some citizens have been! short of the necessities of life owing t to the limited funds available. Some men have been so far reduced in relief work that their earnings over' a period of months have averaged as little as 3s 9d per week, and in another district they have fallen as low as -2s 3d, Married men with two children or less ba»e received in. some areas only 'l2s weekly, and men with larger families have averaged scarcely £ln week. These are figures justifying a review;of the position. Hard pressed as we are to find additional money, I am sure I am expressing the determination of our people when I insist that nobody shall be reduced to these straits. There is a duty to see that all are fed and provided with reasonable requirements. In very many instances, while food is available from the sustenance that is granted, stocks of clothes and boots have been depleted. It is not possible under present circumstances, Ipr the Government to provide everything- and, more than ever, it is necessary for citizens to rally together and do their'utmost to provide these things which the Government are .not able to provide. Tim scales of unemployment relief in the four main cities have recently been revised, with the resqlt that expenditure has greatly increased. The additional money now beins expended in the cities from the Unemployment Fund is more than the amount previously spent by the Hospital boards on unemployment relief, so that recipients of relief in city areas have, as a group, been placed on an improved footing. TJp to'the present, owing to lack of funds, it has'hot. been possible to revise the relief rates outside . of the main cities.

“To meet.the needs of nrbas which have not been placed on the revised scale, arrangements have been made by the Government for a further expenditure’un to £16,000, to cover the winter months.” '

The Minister emphasised that it is not intended to apply , a uniform system of work and relief in all areas. Each locality will be considered, on its merits, and to meet the particular needs of areas in distressed circumstances, special allocations will be made. Generally, however, the effect will be to place relief workers in all parts of the country, having • regard to local conditions, on substantially an equal basis. Tt will now bo possible, at the discretion of the. Local Committees and those responsible,.,for the control of relief work, to eliminate the stand-down weele, or to adopt other arrangements that may serve to meet the needs equally effectively. The Minister also stated that he was particularly gratified .at the excellent progress that liad been made in moving men into productive. work under Scheme 4 and 48. by which unemployed men are placed or. farms, as additional labourers, with assistance from Unemployment Fund. There have been, in all, 27,974 placements. Of these 10,153 are now on farms, while many of the remainder have move.d off the Unemployment Fund into productive work.

The small farm plan for the placing of married men with their families in cottages in country districts, said the Minister, lias been taken up enthusiastically throughout the Dominion. These men have a section of land ranging from ten down to five acres, on which they will presently be able to earn a substantial part of their’food requiiements. A useful modification of this plan provides for a commencement with sharemilking, and already openings for some hundreds of relief workers in this line are in sight. The Minister added that gold prospecting is attracting increasing numbers of men, and already the total who are being ,g|s»sltejd from the Unemployment Fund for this purpose is well over a thousand.