RECLAIMING SAND DUNES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2318, 20 August 1921, Page 2

RECLAIMING SAND DUNES.

WORK AT OROUA DOWNS,

Among the relief works which have been instituted towards assisting the unemployed is the planting of marram grass on the- sandy areas of the Oroua Downs. A party of about twenty-live men has been engaged on this work for about three months and a half, and it is reported that satisfactory progress is being made. The men regard the work as very interesting and congenial, and, speaking generally, they .ire very well pleased with the conditions incidental to the employment- and the camp life. There is one matter, however, about which ihe men feel that they have a grievance, and this is in regard to loss of time in wet weather. A man who had been working on the Downs informed a Post reporter that the men had to pay for their meals at the camp at the rate of 3s per day, but recently a whole week’s work was lost, owing lo Imd weather, There was no objection to having lo pay for their meals, but Ibis was not such an easy thing to do when no vages were being earned through inclement weather conditions. The men considered that they were entitled to some relief in this respect, and trusted that something would be done by the authorities.