UNEMPLOYMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 24, 21 September 1931, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT

SERIOUS POSITION rationing will be necessary in rotorua ALLO C ATION S REDUCED V With its weekly allocation being gradually whittled* down in the face of increasing calls upon its resources, the Rotorua Unemployment and Relief Committee will be called upon to grapple witU a very difficult and serious position during the next few weeks. 1 The unprecedented calls which have been made upon the funds of the Unemployment Board have made it necessary to reduce the allocations throughout New Zealand with the result that although the next two months are likely to be among the most difficult experienced locally, all the indications are that funds will be even more restricted than they have been during the past few weeks. . For the week commencing yesterday, the Rotorua allocation has been decreased to £480 and for the following week, it will be reduced to £450, despite the fact that a substantial in- , crease in the number of registrations l may be expected now that the forestry planting operations are drawing to a elose. i Men who have been put off from the plantations are already beginning to call upon the resources of the committees, and it is anticipated that on the present level of registrations, it will require at least £490 during the coming week to keep the married men alone on full time employment. Rationing Necessary Cbviously, with only £480 available, it is impossible to do this and the committee is facing the fact that either the work or the wages will have to be rationed in order to make the amount available go round. The Unemployment Board is fully seizod of the serious nature of the position, but the calls upon its funds have entirely exceeded all reasonable expectations. When the scheme was fLst introduced it was designed to provide relief for approximately ;15,C00 men but this number [has been increased nearly fourfold until later;t registrations reveal that there are at present approximately 52,000 men out of work in the Dominion. Last week the board issued a circula .* letter to all local bodies and emrioying authorities appealing to them to use all possible precautions to ree that the funds available are put to the best possible use. Tiis appeal was especially directed to i revent men who are forsaking oth( r employment to go on . relief work, from obtaining payments from the :unds. There are very many cases of this nature in different parts of the country and Rotorua is not without its own problem in this direction. Only last week, it came to the knowledge of ihe Relief Committee that a !Rotorra man who has for years been earr: ing a subsistance wage for casual work had expressed his intention of thr owing this up .and going on relief which he stated would provide him with just sufficient work and wages for his modest requirements. The next few weeks present an exceedingiy difficult problem for the committee, and one which apparently will require local effort to surmount.