UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4541, 9 December 1930, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT SUBSIDY.

LOCAL BODIES HANDICAPPED. APPEAL TO THE MINISTER. The critical position of the unemployed in the Foxton-Shaimon area and the inability of the local bodies concerned to raise funds for their relief is causing grave concern. Appeals for special assistance halve been male to the Unemployment. Board blit so far without success.

'The chairman of the Hospital Board, Mr. J. K. Hornblow, in a statement calls attention to the acuteness of the position. “'The Fox ton and Shannon Borough Councils,” said Mr. Hornblow, “have no surplus funds upon which to draw in order to take advantage of the £2 to £1 subsidy from . the Unemployment Board. Both bodies have collected and expended money to provide temporary employment for the workless in their midst. But they Jinve come to the end of their resources. In these two boroughs the largest number of district unemployed are resident and are trying to eke out an existence without; nothing other than charitable aid to tide lliem over the Christmas period. “The Hospital Board made application to the Unemployment Board for a straight-out- grant of £6OO in order to carry out certain woiik, at the Palmerston North Hospital which would give employment to a proportion of unemployed in lieu of charitable aid, hut the request lias been turned down because the hoard receives a subsidy on its maintenance account of 16/0 in the £. The Hospital Board cannot legally allocate a sum of money from its maintenance account to claim Ihe unemployment subsidy for such necessary work, hut. is expected and does dispense charitable aid to necessitous applicants which in the near future will absorb considerably more than the grant asked for with nothing to show for it. An economic and scandalous waste!

“The uiieinjploymcut fund in the form of a poll tax, plus Government subsidy, is to provide work for the unemployed, and the £25,009 grant was to tide the workless over 'Christmas and was not to be considered as a precedent, yet it is so hedged about that the local bodies in this district and the Hospital Board are prevented from participating in the fund. “When the Hospital and Charitable Aid Act was passed the lcgislature}never! ebntenfpljated.that hospitals hoards would he called upon to maintain the dependents of able-bodied unemployed. Yet the Hospital Board is bearing the brunt of the burden. The scriptural quotation is apropos: “To him that hath shall be given, etc.” Surely the Unemployment Board on tho merits of the appeal could and should grant the request of the Hospital Board.”

The following is a copy of a telegram forwarded to the Minister of Labour last night by Mr. Hornblow: —“In the published list of subsidies already granted by the Unemployment Board, 1 notice that no subsidy has as yet been granted to any local body in this hospital district. Official figures appear to indicate that unemployment is more a.elite in Foxton and Shannon in proportion to population than in any other part of the Dominion. The local bodies cannot provide one-third the cost of relief work and in the interests of tlie large body of unemployed .who are being forced owing to delay to seek charitable aid, I would urge upon you as chairman of the Unemployment Board that you review the position in this district at the earliest possible moment.