CHEAP LABOUR

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1932, Page 2

CHEAP LABOUR

ON FARMS IN TARANAKI. MINISTER REPLIES TO CRITICS. (Per Press Association — Copyright.) WELLINGTON, July 16. Replying to allegations of abuse of the 4A Unemployment Stligme, fopofL ed ih a Press Association telegram from Elthain, on Wednesday, Soil Mf Etdmiltdn said to-day that the first principle of the scheme was that, the employment of any man under, it must represent additional labour, and not labour taken on to displace a regular employee. The rules of the scheme also indicated that a farmer should pay such additional wages as he was able to do. The Board admitted freely that most of the schemes are liable to be abused unless safeguarded locally. The Board’s information regarding the men on the 4A Scheme at Eltham put a very different complexion on the supposed abuse

As to the accusation that 50 Pei cent of the men were getting nothing more from the farmer than'tucker, the Board’s records show that out of 48 single men under the scheme at Eltham, nineteen receive only the Board’s ten shillings a week and housing and keep. The remainder receive tional wages, varying from five to fifteen shillings. Out of eight married men the minimum extra wage paid by the farmer is 7/6, and the maximum thirty shillings . The average extra Wage of the single men is 5/4, and of rtbe married 14/8. This, said the Minister of Unemployment, compared quite favourably with the Dominion average of 5/10 and 12/5 for the ten thousand unemployed who were working under the scheme.